He handed the box to another audience member. “Would you see what card is in this box?” he asked.

“The box is empty,” the man replied.

“That’s strange,” Houdini said. “Where can the card have gone?”

He ran back onstage and made me stand up. I was sitting on the five of hearts. Vaguely I was aware of the applause.

Then we went into the part with the hood over my head. He made it easy for me, with the most obvious of clues that we had practiced. I guessed successfully a fan and a pocket watch. The rest of the act went without a hitch, although I’m sure I didn’t move across the stage with the glamorous grace of Lily. But Houdini successfully escaped from the handcuffs and from the trunk and there I was, standing in front of the curtains, taking a bow.

“Well done,” Houdini said, putting his hand around my waist as we came offstage. Such a gesture would have resulted in a slapped face in the outside world, but this was the theater, after all. But I did recall Bess’s jealous outburst and moved aside with agility.

“We got through it, didn’t we?” I agreed.

“In one piece,” he added. He was half joking but I moved closer to him again.

“Tell me, Harry, do you really suspect that someone is trying to kill you, as Bess thinks?”

He thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Until yesterday I would have said no. Bess does tend to—well, you’ve seen what she can be like. But I’d like to know what happened to the key to that trunk. The key was in the inside pocket to my coat. Who would have known about that?”

“Bess said that strange men have been coming to your house,” I ventured, taking this further. “Making what sounded like threats. And at the theater one night I overheard you talking to a young man—well dressed, light hair. Clearly didn’t belong in the theater and the doorman had no idea how he got in.”

“Oh, that.” He stopped abruptly, then he shook his head. “That was something quite different altogether.”

I decided to take the risk. “It sounded to me as if he might have been delivering a threat from his boss.”

“On the contrary,” he said. “I want to meet with his boss. I had hoped to do so by now but there has been no time. I can’t think why—” Then he gave me an exaggerated smile, took my hand, and patted it.

“So let’s assume that all will be well. Only one more night here, then new theater, new show, new people.”

Seventeen