A CHASE AND ITS RESULT.
The flight of Daniel Bambo and Hank Maul was so sudden that for the
moment Neka and Longfellow Wadsworth sat motionless in the sleigh,
hardly believing the evidence of their senses.
“Both of them!” cried the elocutionist.
“We must go after them!” ejaculated Neka, and catching up the reins,
he made the horse turn back.
Down one block they went at top speed. Then Daniel Bambo and Hank
Maul were seen to turn into a narrow side street.
Up to the corner dashed the sleigh, and as he made the turn the horse
gave a sudden jerk.
Scrape! the sleigh swung around. It came hard up against a stone in
the snow, and in a twinkle it went over.
Neka and Longfellow Wadsworth were flung headlong over one side. The
boy landed head first in a huge snowbank, and the snow went down his
collar and coat sleeves. Fortunately the horse ran but a few steps,
and then came to a halt.
It was several seconds when Neka extricated himself from his
decidedly unpleasant position. He gave a quick glance around.
Longfellow Wadsworth lay on his back several yards away. His eyes
were closed, and there was an ugly cut on his forehead.
Much alarmed, Neka forgot all about the flying criminals, and thought
only of his friend. He bent over the elocutionist.
“Wadsworth! Wadsworth!” he cried.
There was no response. Neka put down his ear and discovered that the
elocutionist breathed, but only faintly.
The turnover had been witnessed by half-a-dozen people, and soon a
crowd began to collect.
“Where is the nearest drug store?” asked Neka.
“Down on the next corner,” replied a man. “Shall we help carry him
there?”
“If you please.”
Three men from the crowd sprang forward to assist, and the four
picked Longfellow Wadsworth up and carried him off as tenderly as it
was possible to do.
Luckily, a doctor was in attendance at the drug store, and Longfellow
Wadsworth was turned over to his care. The examination lasted nearly
a quarter of an hour, and during it the elocutionist regained
consciousness. “There are no bones broken,” said the physician. “But
the man has suffered a heavy shock, and must remain quiet for several
days. I will patch up the wound in his forehead and then you had
better have him removed to his home or a hospital in a coach.”
“I’ll have him taken to his hotel,” said Neka, and sent a boy off to
hunt up a large and easy carriage.
Half an hour later found Neka and the elocutionist on the way to
the hotel. A man was hired to drive behind with the sleigh, which,
strange to say, had not been injured in the least.
Neka knew it would now be next to useless to continue the search for
Daniel Bambo and Hank Maul. Those two rascals had had sufficient time
and warning to keep well out of sight. The chances were that they
would even leave Philadelphia.
But after he was certain Longfellow Wadsworth was comfortable, Neka
took the sleigh again and continued the hunt. Several hours were
spent without avail, and the boy sent the turnout back to Camden and
went to the theatre to prepare for his evening’s appearance.
With Longfellow Wadsworth out of the list, the programme had to be
altered somewhat, and to make up for the elocutionist’s absence, Neka
introduced a new act of his own which he called the Lightning Stroke.
This trick is from the Arabian, and is performed at a certain feast
called the Sal-Beno-Sal. Neka had learned of the trick through old
Jerry Brown, but it had taken him a long while to master it.
At the proper time the stage was set to represent a scene on a
mountain top. The stage grew dark, and a storm was seen to approach
from far away. The dim lightning lit up the sky, the distant rumble
of thunder was heard, and presently came the patter of rain.
In the midst of this Neka entered, clad in the garb of a traveler
over the mountains. He wore a long cloak and top boots and a
broad-brimmed rubber hat to shelter him from the rain.
The storm increased in violence, and the lightning came closer and
closer.
As if to view his surroundings, Neka climbed to the top of a great
rock set in the center of the stage. Scarcely had he stood upright
when a vivid flash of lightning seemed to leap from the black clouds
directly overhead and to strike him full in the breast.
After that the lightning played upon him for several minutes,
striking him on the head, in the back, on the arms, and even in the
feet and legs. At one time he appeared to be fairly covered with
electricity.
As bolt after bolt struck him his appearance began to change.
His raven black hair gave way first to gray, and then to white;
the mustache he had worn disappeared, and his face, from looking
youthful, took on gradually the haggard appearance of extreme old
age. At last his hat blew off and whisked out of sight. His long
cloak followed, and his top boots dropped away into the brush below
in the rocks. One article of clothing followed another until finally
when there came a brilliant burst of lightning lasting several
seconds there was revealed to the astounded audience nothing but what
looked like the marble statue of an aged man standing on the rock,
with arms uplifted to the grandeur of the storm. Then the curtain
descended swiftly.
This act created a tremendous lot of discussion, it was so novel and
mystifying. For a long time not even rival magicians discovered the
means used in producing the trick, and not only Philadelphia, but
many other cities went wild over the act. To let the reader into the
secret for once we would state that the illusion is produced by
pictures thrown upon a curtain or wall of steam. What appears to be
rain is really steam sent up from below the stage through a long pipe
filled with holes. As the steam comes up in a wall across the stage,
pictures are cast upon it from in front overhead, at a spot just
behind the proscenium arch, out of sight of the audience. Of course,
Neka had to give aid to the illusion by several rapid changes in
position on the stage rock, but that was all. The hat and cloak were
fastened to fine but strong threads, and at the proper moment were
jerked away by other persons overhead in the flies. The lightning
behind Neka was stage lightning, but that which appeared to strike
him was only lightning pictured on the curtain of steam directly in
front of him.