I grinned. “You can tell Mr. Wilkie that you have solved the problem of the fake money,” I said. “Or at least part of it. I suspect they are being printed in New York, below a theatrical boarding house, and are being distributed by the vanishing Signor Scarpelli, alias Alfred Rosen. Maybe other entertainers are in on it, and I suspect that we’ll discover that German agents are behind this as well.”

“Why didn’t you tell this to Mr. Wilkie when we were with him just now?”

I hesitated. In truth I was still too much in shock to be able to think straight about anything and in the heat of the moment I had forgotten the banknotes. So I permitted myself one small last lie. “I thought it might look good for my future husband’s career if he solved the case,” I said at last.

“Well I’m—” Daniel started. I put my finger on his lips.

“No bad language from now on. It won’t be good for the children.”

He laughed and swept me into his arms, hugging me fiercely.

“I love you, Molly Murphy,” he said.

“And so you should,” I replied.

Suddenly a strange expression came over his face. He sat up and reached into his pocket.

“It wasn’t the right time to give you this before,” he said. “But I can’t carry it around forever.” He drew out a small embossed leather box and opened it. In the shadows of the cab I saw the sparkle of diamonds.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Do not read until you have finished the book!
This is an order.

This is, of course, a work of fiction but not such an outlandish story as you might imagine. It is an established fact that John Wilkie, head of the Secret Service at the time, used entertainers to spy for him in Europe. A good case has been put forward that Houdini was indeed one of those spies and he corresponded with Wilkie through articles he wrote for magicians’ magazines. He really had worked on things like vanishing ink and shoes with hollow heels, which might have been useful for more than stage tricks.

Many countries were working to perfect the submarine at that time. Germany was gaining superiority in the building of machines of many kinds, and also eager to expand its colonies to include footholds in South and Central America. It has been suggested that they were planning surprise raids on cities on America’s East Coast. Whether one of these would have led to a war, who can surmise?

And as for Houdini and Bess, I have tried to make them as true to life as possible, as described by their biographers and in their letters. And their illusions are portrayed exactly as they have been described in newspapers of the time.