Note: This is the third part of the story -- if you missed parts one and two, scroll down and read them first!
Part Three
It was the last performance before Christmas, and it may have been his best of the year.
He lifted enormous, thick-handled barbells, stupendous dumbbells and massive kettle-bells.
He juggled 56-pound block weights.
Then he juggled his kettlebells.
And then he juggled two cannonballs.
He asked one of the stagehands to come onto the stage – a man weighing perhaps 140 or 150 pounds – and used the man to perform the Manual of Arms as easily as if he were holding an 8-pound rifle.
He broke chains with his bare hands – and snapped others by having them wrapped around d his chest – and then breathing deeply, filling his lungs, and flexing every muscle in his upper body.
He twisted metal bars and horseshoes as if they were made of rubber.
Ten men from the audience came on stage, and he beat all ten of them at the same time in a tug of war.
He lifted 500 pounds with one finger.
He performed a back-lift with a specially constructed stage while 20 men from the audience stood on it.
The crowd loved it. They clapped and cheered louder and louder with each successive feat of strength.
He ended the performance with a titanic feat of strength.
It began when six burly stagehands rolled an enormous globe barbell onto the stage. It lay in the center of the stage, looking massive and menacing.
The strongman invited two men from the audience to step on stage and try to lift the bell. Two husky heroes accepted the invitation – and failed to budge it.
The strongman challenged four men to attempt to lift the barbell.
Two more men stepped onto the stage and cautiously approached the barbell.
One man bent down and wrapped his arms as far as possible around one of the globes.
The other man did the same.
The first two men grabbed the thick handled bar. Their hands could barely wrap around it.
“On the count of three!” said the strongman.
The men nodded and tightened their grips.
“One!”
The men gripped harder than ever.
“Two!”
The men barely dared to breathe.
“THREE!”
The four men heaved with all their might – but nothing happened.
For several long, agonizing seconds they pulled and strained – and then the man holding the left globe suddenly lost his grip and fell backwards – and then the man holding the other globe did the same – and then one of the men pulling against the bat fell forward – and the other man let go, stood up, and backed away, shaking his head.
“It’s impossible,” he said. “No man could lift this!”
“Stand aside – out of the way!”
The strongman approached the bar. With quick, sure, practiced movements, he reached down, levered it up on end, slipped his right hand under the center of the bar and dipped under it.
The audience gasped as the huge barbell rose up as if by magic.
The strongman smiled as the bar balanced on his shoulder.
He turned slightly, and began to lower his body, twisting himself under the barbell.
He finished in a deep squat, holding the bar overhead with one hand.
And then he stood up.
He finished the lift with the bar overhead – and smiled at the audience as he supported the huge weight.
And then, for good measure – he squatted down again, picked up a heavy kettlebell, rocked it to his other shoulder, and then pressed it overhead.
The crowd went wild.
Back in his dressing room, he showered, and changed back into his street clothes.
He had just finished tying his tie when he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” he said.
The door opened, and a well-dressed man stepped inside. He was middle-aged, with short, silver-gray hair, but he stood tall and straight, and moved with the grace of an athlete.
He held an engraved calling card in his hand, and passed it to the strongman, who glanced at it curiously.
His eyes opened in surprise and he read the card a second time.
“Let me come straight to the point,” said the stranger. “That was a magnificent performance this afternoon. Simply outstanding. You’re the very best strongman in the world – but you’re doing neither yourself nor the world any favors by performing in a place like this. I am prepared to offer you double whatever they’re paying you here – to tour the United States with my circus. I’ll give you a guaranteed one year contract and everything you need to perform your act.”
“Food and drink?”
“As much as you want.”
“I have two brothers – what about them?”
“Are they strong?’
“They’re my brothers. They’re strong.”
“Then I want them, too.”
The strongman nodded.
“There’s one more thing I want,’ he said.
“Name it.”
“There’s a boy down the street who sells hot roasted chestnuts. He’s an orphan – his parents died of the flu. I want you to hire him as well.”
“To do what?”
“He can sell chestnuts just as well in the circus as on the street corner.”
‘They must be a special kind of chestnuts.”
The strongman shook his head.
“No – but he’s special kind of kid,” he said.
The circus owner nodded and extended his hand.
“It’s a deal,” he said.
The strongman reached out and offered his own massive hand.
“Deal,” he said.
As the men shook hands, there was another knock on the door.
"Come in!"
The blonde chorus girl stepped inside.
"Oh -- I'm sorry!" she said. "I didn't know you had company."
"The circus owner bowed and smiled.
"Not at all," he said. "A mere business discussion -- and we're concluded."
He turned back to the strongman.
"I'll have my lawyer draw up a contract and deliver it next week," he said. "And I wish you a merry Christmas!"
He left, leaving the door open.
The chorus girl turned to the strongman.
"I thought you might want to buy some chestnuts," she said. "You know -- from the kid. Just to help him get some food for Christmas."
The strongman shook his head.
"I think we'll take him to dinner instead," he said. "This is a Christmas he'll remember forever."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He told her, and she clapped her hands for sheer joy, then through herself against his chest, crushed him in a hug and kissed him.
"That's the best Christmas present ever," she cried. "Let's go tell him!"
They stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind them, and then stepped through the big doors at the front of the theater and into the busy street.
The wind blew fiercely as the walked toward the boy at the chestnut stand. It half ripped a poster from the wall of the theater -- a poster that proudly proclaimed: "FOR A LIMITED ENGAGEMENT -- THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD -- ARTHUR SAXON!"
