“The money is no problem,” she said. “Harry did well for himself in Europe and he’s getting four hundred dollars a week now.”

“Four hundred dollars!” I blurted out thus wrecking the impression I might have given of the sophisticated urbanite detective. But I had no idea entertainers could earn that kind of money when twenty dollars was a good wage for the average employee. Then my mind turned back to more practical matters. Those who make good money often are unwilling to part with it. I had seen this demonstrated before when I had been hired by another famous stage personality, the actress Oona Sheehan. She had done everything in her power to wriggle out of paying me.

“But do you think he’ll be willing to pay me if he has such an aversion to my kind of service?” I asked.

She smiled prettily now. “He’d do anything to make his babykins happy,” she said. “He worships the ground I tread on.”

“Exactly how long are you in New York?” I asked.

“Only three weeks, then we’re booked on the Deutschland to sail back to Europe at the end of the month.”

I still wasn’t sure whether to talk myself out of a job or not. “If it’s only three weeks, then surely it’s hardly worth hiring me, is it? You’ll be safely far away again before you know it.”

“And Harry could be dead,” she said bluntly. “If someone wants him dead, then three weeks is plenty of time to kill him.”

This, of course was true. “All right, Mrs. Houdini. Let’s get started and you can tell me what you want me to do,” I said. I went to the desk and took out a sheet of paper.

“Well,” she said. “After what happened to that poor girl the other night, I’m especially worried that someone is going to try and get at him during his act. It wouldn’t be that hard, you know. One little thing that doesn’t work and you’re a goner. And it looks like an accident. So I want you to be there with him all the time onstage.”

“What?” This came as a bombshell. “You want me onstage?”

She nodded. “Yes, I thought that maybe you could take over my part in the act. Oh, I know you won’t be able to do everything. You’d never be able to learn the famous Metamorphosis that we do—you’re not small enough to fit into the trunk, for one thing. But I can teach you the other things. We open with the mind reading, you know. That always goes down well with the crowd. We’ve done spiritualism in the past too, but Harry’s so against it now that we don’t do it anymore.”

“You really communicated with spirits?”