Joe Strong the Boy Fire-Eater | Page 2

chair in full
view of you all. I will cover her, for a moment only, with a silken veil.
This, if I were a real necromancer, I should say was to prevent your
seeing her dissolve into a spirit as she disappears. But to tell you the
truth, it is to conceal the manner in which I do the trick. You'd guess
that, anyhow, if I didn't tell you," he added.
There was a good-natured laugh at this admission.
"As soon as I remove the silken veil," went on Joe, "you will see that
the lady will have disappeared before your very eyes. What's that?
Through a hole in the stage did some one say?" questioned Joe,
appearing to catch a protesting voice.
"Well, that's what I hear everywhere I go," he went on with easy
calmness. "Every time I do the vanishing lady trick some one thinks
she disappears through a hole in the stage. Now, in order to convince
you to the contrary, I am going to put a newspaper over that part of the
stage where the chair is placed. I will show you the paper before and
after the trick. And if there is not a hole or a tear in the paper, either
before or after the lady has disappeared, I think you will admit that the
lady did not go through a hole in the stage floor. Won't you?" asked Joe
Strong. "Yes, I thought you would," he added, as he pretended to hear a
"yes" from somewhere in the audience.
"All ready now, Helen," he said in a low voice to the girl, and an
attendant brought forward an ordinary looking chair and a newspaper.
Joe, who had done the trick many times before, but not often with
Helen, was perfectly at ease. Helen was very frankly nervous. She had
not done the trick for some time, and Joe had introduced into it some
novel features since last presenting it. Helen was afraid she would
cause some hitch in the performance.
"You'll be all right," Joe said to her in a low voice. "Just act as though

you had done this every day for a year."
Placing the chair in the center of the stage and handing Joe the
newspaper, the attendant stepped back. Joe addressed the audience.
"You here see the paper," said the "magician," as he held it up. "You
see that there is no hole in it. I'll now spread it down on the stage. If the
lady disappears down through the stage she will have to tear the paper.
You shall see if she does."
Joe next placed the chair directly over the square of paper and
motioned to Helen. Her plain black dress, of soft, clinging silk, swayed
about her as she took her place.
"I might add," said Joe, pausing a moment after Helen had taken her
seat, "that in order to prevent any shock to Mademoiselle Mortonti I am
going to mesmerize her. She will then be unconscious. I do this for two
reasons. In totally disappearing there is sometimes a shock to a person's
mentality that is unpleasant. To avoid indicting that on Mademoiselle
Mortonti I will hypnotize her.
"The other reason I do that is that she may not know how or when she
disappears. Thus she will not be able to see how I do the trick, and so
cannot give away my secret."
Of course this was all "bunk" or "patter," to use names given to it by
the performers. It kept the attention of the audience and so enabled Joe
to do certain things without attracting too much attention to them. As a
matter of fact he did not mesmerize Helen, and she knew perfectly well
how the trick was done. Those who have read previous books of this
series are also in the secret.
Joe waved his hands in front of Helen's face. She swayed slightly in her
chair. Then her eyes closed as though against her will, and she seemed
to sleep.
"She is now in the proper condition for the trick," said Joe. "I must beg
of you not to make any sudden or unnecessary noise. You might

suddenly awaken her from the mesmeric slumber, and this might be
very serious."
As Joe said this with every indication of meaning it, there was a quick
hush among the audience. Even though many knew it was only a trick,
they could not help being impressed by the solemn note in Joe's voice.
Such is the psychology of an audience, and the power over it of a single
person.
"She now sleeps!" said Joe in a low voice. As a matter of fact, Helen
was wide awake, and as Joe stood between her and the circus crowd
she slowly opened one eye