The strait-jacket was taken out of the satchel. The handcuff king
examined it carefully, while a group of persons looked on. Not a
move he made was lost. He dropped the piece of canvas and leather
carelessly, smiled again, and said:
"Very good. Are we ready?"
It was almost 12.30 o'clock. Houdini glanced out the window, and again
his characteristic, quiet smile came to his face as he saw Wood street
and Liberty avenue congested from wall to wall with closely packed,
restless humanity.
Then a white-clad attendant on each side, he went downstairs to the
street to be bound.
A suppressed shout came from the crowd as he appeared in the doorway of
The Sun building. It increased in volume as with the attendants and two
members of "The Sun" at 12 o'clock. R. D. Polling wagon that had been
pulled up on the pavement, and that was serving as a stage.
Above him, like a gallows, a single beam projected from a window at the
top story of the building, and a rope swung clear, coiling in sinister
fashion at his feet.
Houdini had removed the outer clothing from the upper part of his body.
"Ready," he said.