At last another snap was heard, and another quart of water plunged down his right leg and formed a pool about his shoe.

Then the necromancer hurriedly said that the experiment had failed somehow, and he darted into the dining-room.

We followed him, and found him sitting on the sofa trying to remove his pantaloons.

He exclaimed, "Oh, gracious! Come here quick, and pull these off! They're soaking wet, and I've got fifteen live gold-fish inside my trousers flipping around, and rasping the skin with their fins enough to set a man crazy.

Ouch! Hurry that shoe off, and catch that fish there at my left knee, or I'll have to howl right out." [Illustration: THE GOLDFISH TRICK] Then we undressed him and picked the fish out of his clothes, and we discovered that he had had two dishes full of water and covered with India-rubber tops strapped inside his trousers behind.