This, in good hands, will be found a very effective trick. I have the
less hesitation in saying so, because the assertion is only to a very
limited extent self-praise. The idea of the effect to be produced was my
own, as also to a certain extent the method of producing it. I had even
got so far as to devise, in anticipation, suitable patter. When, however,
I proceeded to put my ideas into practice I found myself pulled up by
unexpected obstacles.
The object to be attained, as will be seen by the sequel, was the
instantaneous re-adjustment of the sundered parts of a small pyramid,
and this I proposed to do by means of the pull of a thread, fine enough
to be practically invisible. Now, to make segments of a pyramid not only
draw together, but sit squarely one upon another, it is necessary to have
forces operating simultaneously in two different directions, and the
need for this caused difficulties which I found myself unable to cope
with. Indeed, I had practically decided to content myself by producing
a somewhat similar effect in a simpler way, as exemplified in the trick
which I have called the _Miracle of Mumbo Jumbo_, which next follows.
As luck would have it, however, I mentioned my difficulties to my good
friend, Mr. Holt Schooling, a gentleman whom I have more than once
had occasion to refer to in my writings in connection with some neat
device. Mr. Schooling declared that the original idea was too good to be
abandoned, and offered to try his hand at bringing it to a successful
issue. I must frankly confess that I had no great hope of his success;
but Mr. Schooling is a man of many talents. Apart from eminence in his
own profession (that of actuary and statistician) he is not only an
expert amateur conjurer, but an exceptionally skilful mechanic, and he
possesses withal an unlimited capacity for taking pains. He used these
qualities to such good purpose that I am enabled to include this striking
effect among the contents of the present volume.
[Illustration: FIG. 18]
The principal item of apparatus is naturally the pyramid itself, which is
of blackened wood as illustrated in Fig. 18. For the sake of lightness
it is of necessity a small affair, being four inches in height, about
six across the base, and two across the top. It is divided into five
horizontal slabs or segments, as indicated by the dotted lines. Midway
on each side of each slab, at about half an inch distance from the upper
edge, a minute hole is bored, parallel to the outer slope of the segment;
exactness in this particular being an essential condition of success. Of
the four holes in each slab, two only are actually used in the trick, the
other two being added partly for the sake of uniformity, and partly to
disguise the significance of the other pair. Each slab, save those at the
top and bottom, is also perforated perpendicularly by three or four holes
of considerable diameter, the object of these being merely to lessen the
weight of the slab.
In preparing the pyramid for use in the trick, a piece of plaited silk
fishing-line, stained black, and in length five to six feet, is passed
by the aid of a needle upwards through the small hole in one side of the
largest slab; then in the same way through the corresponding hole in the
next, and so on till it comes out through the uppermost. Thence it is
again passed downward through the next adjoining hole in each slab till
it comes out at the bottom, when the ends are drawn level and tied in a
knot.
The use of plaited silk fishing line for such purposes is one of Mr.
Schooling’s specialties, and is a “tip” to make a note of. Line of this
kind is in proportion to its thickness much stronger than ordinary silk
thread, and, not being liable to untwist, its surface remains permanently
hard and smooth, a great desideratum where it is important to minimise
friction. Further, it does not “kink” as a twisted thread is liable to do.
Two other items of apparatus are used, viz.:
(1) An electric torch in the shape of a wand, the light appearing at the
end.
[Illustration: FIG. 19]
(2) A little knife or cutter specially designed by Mr. Schooling for use
in this trick. This consists of a half-inch length of a safety-razor
blade, set in a handle consisting of a piece of tin one inch square,
folded in half, and then bent back to a right angle on each side, the
blade projecting along the line of juncture as shown in Fig. 19. In use
the cutter is held by what may be called its backbone between the first
joints of the first and second fingers of the extended hand, as shown in
Fig. 20. This cutter must be placed ready to hand upon the table. It is
so minute that there is no fear of its attracting attention.[12]
[Illustration: FIG. 20]
In presenting the trick the pyramid, with its sections duly threaded and
placed one upon another, is brought in on a wooden board similar to an
ordinary drawing-board, measuring twenty-four inches by sixteen, and like
the pyramid itself, stained black. It is essential to the satisfactory
working of the trick that the “base” section of the pyramid shall not
shift when the thread is pulled. This is ensured by having two L shaped
“stops” of thin wood glued or screwed to the board near the left hand
corner nearest to the performer when in use.
The trick may be introduced as follows:
“I don’t know whether any of you ladies and gentlemen are well up in
Egyptology. I can’t say I am, myself. I know a camel when I see one, but
that is about as far as I have got. There is, however, one point about it
which has always interested me very much. It is a point which has puzzled
not only the Egyptologists, but all the other ologists; namely, how the
pyramids were built. They consist, as no doubt you know, of enormous
masses of stone; so large that the cleverest engineers of our day cannot
tell us how they were placed one upon another. If you can imagine the
lifting of the Royal Exchange in one lump and dumping it down on the top
of the Bank of England, you will have some idea of the sort of job the
Egyptian builders had to tackle.[13] Anyhow, the work was done, and as it
is clear that it could not have been done by any known mechanical means,
we are compelled to seek some other solution of the problem.
“I don’t know whether any of you read novels. If you do, you must often
have noticed the curious way in which fiction constantly anticipates
fact. The novelist describes some utterly impossible thing, and a few
years later some other fellow goes and does it. Jules Verne described
a voyage under the sea long before the submarine was invented, and Mr.
Wells wrote ‘The War in the Air’ while the aeroplane and the Zeppelin
were still in their infancy. But there is one conception of the novelist
which has not till now been made an accomplished fact. That is the force
called ‘Vril,’ described by Lord Lytton in his novel, ‘The Coming Race.’
He describes Vril as a sort of hyper-electricity capable in the hands
of those who know how to gather and use it, of producing all sorts of
wonders, even to removing mountains. Imprisoned in a wand and directed by
a strong will, it will shrivel up an enemy or a wild beast as by a flash
of lighting.
“I have always had an idea that this must have been the force used by
the Egyptians to build the pyramids. I have managed to collect a small
quantity of an unknown force which answers very closely to Lord Lytton’s
description of Vril, and I have charged this wand with it. As regards
killing things, I have only tested it so far on a black beetle. The
experiment was a success. He was blown to atoms, all but one hind leg.
I should like to try it on a tiger; if I could get one cheap. Does any
gentleman present know of a secondhand tiger in a good strong cage going
cheap? No? I was afraid you wouldn’t. I am hoping however for a chance
of trying it some night on a burglar. If a gentleman of the Bill Sykes
persuasion should steal into my chamber at dead of night with felonious
designs upon my Waterbury and my collarstud, he will be as a dead man. I
shall just point this wand at him and say ‘Die,’ and he will be merely a
little heap of ashes to be swept up by the housemaid in the morning.
“I can however give you an example of the power of my Vril as a motive
force. I shall do so by using it to build or rather rebuild this little
pyramid in your presence.
“This is a correct copy of the real thing. It takes to pieces, as you
see. One, two, three, four, five!”
As he pronounces the last few words, the performer, standing behind his
table, picks up the pyramid, and holding it aloft in his right hand draws
away the base from the other sections, sliding it along the thread, and
“bedding” it between the “stops” at the left hand bottom corner of the
board. He then slides the other portions, one by one, along the thread in
the same way, laying them in a row diagonally across the board. This will
have taken up a considerable portion of the thread, but there will still
be a loop some inches in length hanging down near the left hand corner of
the table.
“Now please watch carefully. This wand, you will remember, has been
carefully charged with my imitation Vril.”
While speaking these last words the performer gets one finger of his left
hand within the loop. He now turns on the light at the end of the wand,
and with it makes a quick sweep from right to left over the severed parts
of the pyramid, making at the same time a half-turn away from the table,
and quickly drawing away the thread. If this is done neatly the severed
parts of the pyramid run together one upon the other in a single instant.
It is probable that the parts may not sit exactly one upon another.
Whether this is so or not, the performer makes believe to notice that it
is so, as it gives him a needful opportunity. He remarks:
“The power was hardly strong enough, I see. There is a block here that
needs a little straightening up.” Having meanwhile picked up the little
cutter between the fingers he bends over the table and squares up the
pyramid as may (or may not) be necessary, and under cover of so doing
draws the blade across the thread where it crosses the top, thereby
severing it, and then moving back a little to note the effect of his
correction draws it away altogether. Shifting the restored pyramid to
the centre of the board he brings all forward for examination. The
severed thread is allowed to drop on the floor, to be picked up after the
performance is over.
[12] As a further precaution it should be painted flesh-color.
[13] Before an American audience the names of any two well-known
buildings in New York may be substituted.