For months after， on any given night， as the cara-<br > van of trailers moved down the road， some sleepy<br > juggler or flyer or acrobat would turn from the<br > tedium of the unending road to say to his partner，<br > " If Starback would only have left that cat alone， I<br > bet it would have circled the arena and jumped<br > back up on its stand."<br > And another sleepy juggler or flyer or acrobat<br > would say， "Nobody U ever know."<br > Starback himself knew only that he had to have<br > complete control or he had nothing but luck， and<br >~ ~obody s luck lasts forever. He headed the cat oK<br > and tried to back him down. The chair was eaten<br > out of his hand. The pieces of it broke like snap-<br > ping bones and flew up in front of his face. He<br > dropped the whip. Then he did that other thing.<br > He jumped up on the bars of the arena and tried<br > to crawl to the top. Old Dan jumped too， and took<br > the right buttock in his yellow mouth and held<br > Starback fast while he raked his back with one<br > set of claws. Starback held tight to the bars.<br > It hurt beyond all imaginable pain. The scream<br > twisted shut his throat.<br > He was Captain Rex Starback then. Ten years<br > ago.<br > Beads of perspiration still dotted his head when<br > he thought about it， and an ache surrounded the<br > ten inches of numbness that ran from his buttock<br >11<br ><br >