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 Brass Coffin" trick, which was the first
Messrs. Hamar, Curtis and Kelson proceeded to explain, will, perhaps,
suffice. A massively constructed brass-bound coffin is handed round to the
audience, who carefully examine it, and being unable to discover
anything amiss, pronounce themselves satisfied that it is genuine. The operator then summons an assistant, 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 circumstances, 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 attitude 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 rôle 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.