"Glad to find you in a more tractable mood, Mr. Martin," he exclaimed on being ushered into the latter's presence. "I reckoned you would sing to a different tune when you found that water. Would you like me to give you a few more samples of my skill, before we proceed to business?"

"Name your business at once," John Martin replied gruffly; "I haven't many minutes to spare."

"No!" Hamar said, "that's a pity; because part of what I have at the back of my brain may take more than a few minutes arranging. The situation in a nutsh.e.l.l is this. You have a pretty daughter, Mr.

Martin?"

"How dare you, sir?" John Martin broke in, clenching his fist.

"Gently, gently, Mr. Martin!" Hamar observed, backing towards the door. "Gently--you promised to give me a courteous hearing. I meant no offence. I say I admire your daughter immensely--she takes the shine out of our American girls."

"The deuce she does!" John Martin foamed.

"She does, you bet!" Hamar went on. "And I see no reason if she likes me, why we couldn't get engaged. I would do the thing handsomely as far as money goes. What do you say?"

"I say that unless you're very careful I shall break my promise and kick you."

"I would pay you a big lump sum to take me into partnership," Hamar went on complacently, "and I would introduce a number of new tricks that would stagger creation. I shouldn't be in any hurry to marry--the length of the engagement would be for you to decide."

"Then it would be _ad infinitum_," John Martin said grimly, "for you'll never get my consent to a marriage."

"Never is a long day--and even a John Martin may change. You want new blood and new capital in your Firm--you would have both in me. I a.s.sure you your show would boom as it has never boomed before!"

"And the only condition on which you offer me all this is my daughter?"

"You have said it--that is the one and only condition. Your daughter--my brains, my dollars."

"I have decided!" John Martin said.

"Good!" Hamar exclaimed; "I guessed you would! There's nothing like the almighty dollar, is there?"

"Yes!" John Martin rejoined; "the almighty fist--and that's what you'll get if you don't clear out of this house instantly. And if you ever come skulking round here again, or write me any more letters I'll set my. solicitor on to you."

"Then it's war--war to the knife!" Hamar sneered. "How melodramatic!

But it won't last long. I shall yet be your partner--and I shall yet have Miss Gladys! Au revoir--I won't say good-bye!" and with a mock bow he hurriedly took his departure.

That night Messrs. Martin and Davenport's entertainment had progressed as usual for about half an hour when it suddenly came to a full stop.

A man in the lowest tier of boxes had risen and was addressing the audience in a loud voice: "Ladies and gentlemen!"

In an instant all heads swung round and there were stentorian shouts of "Silence!"

But Curtis--for it was he--was not easily daunted. "Do you call this fair play!" he demanded; "I am here to-night to make a sporting offer, and one which will afford you vast entertainment."

Cries of "Shut up!" "Silence!" "He's drunk!" "Turn him out!" merging into one loud roar forced him to pause. Several uniformed officials now invaded the box, but Hamar--who, as well as Kelson, was with Curtis--fixing them with his big dark eyes that gleamed eerily in the half-lowered lights of the house--for the stage only at that moment was fully illuminated--held them in check, and they hung back not knowing what to do. This move of Hamar's took with a large section of the audience--some of whom were possessed with sporting instincts, whilst others were merely curious--and the somewhat premature cries of "Turn him out!" etc., were soon lost in vociferous shouts of: "Let them alone!" "Let them speak!" "Let us hear what they have to say." It was in the midst of this hubbub that John Martin in a great state of nervous agitation came to the front of the stage and inquired the cause of the commotion. The shouting still continued, and Gladys, who had come to the performance antic.i.p.ating something of the sort, called to her father, from the wings, bidding him give Curtis permission to speak.

"You will lose all sympathy if you don't, Father," she added; "and besides you have nothing to fear. It's sheer bravado and impudence on their part."

Thus advised, for Gladys was a level-headed girl, John Martin gave in; and the audience showed their approval by a vigorous round of clapping.

"I wish I were spokesman," Kelson sighed, his eyes glistening at the sight of so many pretty upturned faces. "Go on, old man!" he added, giving Curtis a nudge. "Fire away, and show them you know a bit about elocution, for the credit of the Firm."

Curtis needed no encouragement. What little bashfulness he had once possessed he had certainly left behind in San Francisco, for he leaned over the front of the box and smiled familiarly at the audience.

"I am Edward Curtis," he said, "one of the directors of the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd. Messrs. Martin and Davenport have so often boasted that no one outside their firm can perform their tricks that I have come here to-night resolved to disillusion them. I not only accept their offer of ten thousand pounds for the solution of their tricks, but I agree to pay them double that amount--cash down--if I do not do everything they do--from 'The Bra.s.s Coffin' to their world-famed 'Pumpkin Puzzle.' With Messrs. Martin and Davenport's permission I will explain one and all of their tricks to you to-night, and the only thing I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is to see that I get fair play."

A spontaneous outburst of clapping followed this speech, and as soon as it had ceased one of the audience who had risen and was waiting to speak, said: "I trust Messrs. Martin and Davenport will accept this challenge, and allow the Modern Sorcery Company the opportunity here, in this hall to-night, of displaying their skill--or their ignorance, as the case may be. If Messrs. Martin and Davenport's tricks cannot be performed by any outsider--the Firm in accepting this challenge will merely be twenty thousand pounds the richer--and if--as is hardly likely, Messrs. Martin and Davenport should be outwitted, I am sure they themselves will be amongst the first to congratulate their successful rivals. I, for one, am quite ready to act as referee."

"I too!" shouted a dozen other voices. "Be a sport and accept his bet!"

"Ladies and gentlemen," John Martin replied with dignity, "you have given me no alternative; I accept the challenge. Perhaps those who have so kindly volunteered to act as referees will see that order is maintained whilst I go on with my performance, at the conclusion of which Mr. Curtis--I think that is the name of my rival--will be quite at liberty to try his exposition of my tricks."

The performance then proceeded, and when it was over, Curtis, Hamar and Kelson, accompanied by six of those of the audience who had volunteered to act as referees, stepped on to the stage. Seats were provided for the referees--three on the one side of the stage and three on the other; and having seen that everything was fair and square John Martin retired to the O.P. wing, behind which Gladys was concealed.

A brief description of "The Bra.s.s Coffin" trick, which was the first Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps, suffice.

A ma.s.sively constructed bra.s.s-bound coffin is handed round to the audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover anything amiss, p.r.o.nounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine.

The operator then summons an a.s.sistant, jokingly refers to him as "the corpse"--puts him into a sack, made to represent a winding-sheet, securely binds the sack with a piece of cord, and asks one of the audience to seal it. The sack and its contents are then placed in the coffin which is locked and corded. The operator then throws a sheet over the coffin, lets it remain there for a few seconds, and on removing it and opening the lid, the coffin, is found to be empty. A shout from the front of the House makes every one turn round, when, to their amazement, "the corpse" is seen standing up at the back of "the Pit," holding the sack with the rope and seal--intact--in his hand.

Such was the marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and Davenport's Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of which no one as yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in these circ.u.mstances, the tremendous excitement of the audience at the prospect of seeing this notorious puzzle tackled--and tackled by a member of a Firm which was already reputed to be doing all kinds of weird and extraordinary things. But, whereas it was quite obvious that John Martin was greatly perturbed (his eyebrows were working nervously, and his lips and fingers twitching), Curtis, on the other hand, was as cool as possible--he literally did not turn a hair.

"Now, gentlemen," he said, turning to the referees, "keep your eyes well skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen," he went on, raising his voice, "I am now about to show you how the coffin trick is done. Observe me--I'm 'the corpse'--Mr. Kelson, here, is the operator--" and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced, down the stage to take part in the proceedings.

"Watch me get into the sack!" He stepped into it as he spoke. "Look at what I have in my hand," he went on, holding up his right hand in full view of the audience. "I have a plug of wood covered with the same material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You think you know this coffin but you don't. See!"--and stepping out of the sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and deep. "Come closer!" and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers were now augmented by three newspaper reporters--representatives of the _Daily Snapper_, the _Planet_ and the _Hooter_ respectively. "Here is a secret panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press too."

And amidst a breathless silence--the nine members of the audience on the stage following every movement--Curtis put his hand inside the head of the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In an instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid back, leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to squeeze through.

Everyone now looked at John Martin--he was leaning back in his chair, breathing hard, his eyes starting out of his head, his cheeks white.

Hamar saw him and grinned, grinned malevolently, but the smile died out of his face when he glanced at Gladys--the scorn in the girl's eyes made his blood boil.

"All right, Miss Martin," he muttered between his teeth; "you adopt that att.i.tude now, but you will adopt a very different one later on!

I'll win you body and soul, or my name is not what it is."

He was interrupted in this amiable reflection by Curtis. "I'm too stout to play the role of the corpse, and so is Matt," Curtis said to him; "you must undertake that part. Now!" he went on, "take this plug and get into the sack," and he whispered a few instructions in his ear. Then he tied the top of the sack--in reality tying it round the plug Hamar was holding--and one of the audience sealed the knot.

Curtis and Kelson then lifted Hamar into the coffin, shut the lid and corded it. Then Curtis, turning to the audience, said:

"What is now happening inside the coffin is this--'the corpse' pulls the plug out of the mouth of the sack from the inside. The cord thus becomes loose and 'the corpse' is able to open the sack. He at once touches the spring I pointed out to you in the head of the coffin, and the panel slides back--So!"

And as the audience looked, they saw the panel slide back, and first of all Hamar's head, and then his body, wriggle through the aperture thus made.

"The reason why you, audience, cannot see him make his escape is this," Curtis explained; "the head of the coffin is always turned away from you and placed against a mirror which you can't see, and which to you appears but the continuation of the stage. In this mirror exactly opposite the head of the coffin is an aperture, and it is through this 'the corpse' makes his exit to the back of the stage. I will show it you. Here it is"--and beckoning to the referees to come quite close, he pointed to a gla.s.s screen, in the centre of the base of which was a gla.s.s trap-door, corresponding in height and girth to the head of the coffin. "Here, corpse!" Curtis said, "crawl through"--and Hamar, looking as if he by no means appreciated the undignified task of wriggling on his stomach before so many eyes, drew himself as tight together as he could, and squirmed through.

"Does that satisfy you, gentlemen?" Curtis inquired.

"Perfectly!" the referees answered. "Nothing could be plainer. We see exactly, now, how the trick is done."

At this there was a loud outburst of clapping, and Curtis bowed in the elegant manner in which he had been patiently and a.s.siduously coached by Kelson.

He then proceeded to the second trick--"Eve at the Window," a trick almost, if not quite, as famous as "The Bra.s.s Coffin," and for the solution of which Martin and Davenport had frequently offered huge sums of money.

A large pane of gla.s.s some nine by six feet in area, and set in a frame, made to represent that of a window, is placed on the stage, about eighteen inches from the floor. Thirty-six inches from the ground a wooden shelf is placed against the window. An a.s.sistant--usually a woman--then mounts on the shelf and, looking out of the gla.s.s, proceeds to kiss her hand vigorously. The operator in a shocked voice asks her to desist. She refuses and, to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the audience, carries on her pantomimic flirtation more desperately than before. The operator pretends to lose his temper, and s.n.a.t.c.hing up a screen places it at the back of her. He then fires a pistol, pulls aside the screen, and she has vanished. As the top, bottom and sides of the window, all in fact except the very middle, have been in full view of the audience, and as the window has been tightly closed all the time, the disappearance of the girl completely mystifies the audience.