There could be no doubt about that. At the first turn of the key the
lock went forward twice; at the second, once. Houdini was behind a
triple lock in the dark, dreary cell.
The =Express= representative and the gaoler left him there, and
retired beyond an iron gate which bars the passage.
"The gate is a greater test than the cell," said the gaoler.
"It's locked before it's locked, if you understand. Shut it, and it's
locked, and then you can lock it again."
The gaoler hand only secured it when Houdini presented himself.
"That's as quick as I've ever done it," said he. And then he tackled
the gate.
A moment's hesitation. The gaoler shook his head, and a smile was just
overspreading his features, when lo! Houdini flung open wide the gate.
He agreed that the gate was "tougher," as he expressed it, than the
cell.
Houdini is an American. Only his strong arms and his supple, yet
powerful hands give the slightest clue of his prison-breaking capacity.
He does not look a gaolbird, but the escape he made for the benefit of
=Express= readers was his 61st.
Bright-eyed, smart, active, and a good talker, he has traveled far and
wide, and has broken out of the prisons of many countries.
"I have never failed," said Houdini, "but I don't say there is no cell
I cannot break out of. As to handcuffs, the hardest job I ever had was
with a pair made at Krupp's. It took me 40 minutes to get out of them,
but I did it."
[Illustration: decorative]
[Illustration:
=Hou'di-ni=, 1 hü'dï-nï]; 2 hu'dï-nï, =Harry= (4/6
1874- ). American mystericist, wizard, and expert in extrication and
self-release.--=hou'di-nize=, _vt._ To release or extricate
oneself from (confinement, bonds, or the like), as by wriggling out.