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СКАЧАТЬ his most famous trick.

      ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he began, ‘it has only been by the kind co-operation of the electrical staff on board that I am now able to show you this most remarkable trick—the greatest I have ever performed.’

      He stepped back a pace or two and tapped the huge disappearing cabinet which had taken up the greater part of the stage during his entire act. He touched a button hidden in the moulding, and immediately the cabinet was illuminated until it glowed all over in a series of diagonal designs of light.

      The Japanese beamed upon his audience.

      ‘By the aid of this cabinet,’ he said, ‘I will make to disappear not just one of my assistants, but any one of you who will come up and help me.’ He paused to let his full meaning sink in upon his audience. ‘I will make them to disappear and to reappear,’ he went on. ‘And if, after the experience, any one of them can explain how the miracle was performed, then’—with a great gesture of solemnity—‘I throw myself into the sea.’

      He waited until the polite laughter had subsided, and then went on briskly.

      ‘Who will come first? You, sir, you?’ he added, pointing out Mr Barber, who was by far the most conspicuous person before him.

      The Turk shook his head and laughed.

      ‘Ah! no, my boy. No. I am too old for these adventures.’

      The Japanese smiled and passed on. The pale young man in the spectacles jumped up, however.

      ‘I’ll disappear,’ he said, in his somewhat foolish voice. ‘I think Haig would like to,’ he murmured to the Oriental by way of explanation.

      He went forward eagerly, but paused, as there was some commotion across the room. Judge Lobbett, in spite of his son’s obvious disapproval, was already halfway up the steps to the stage. He also paused as the young man appeared, and the two men stood irresolute until the magician, coming forward, beckoned them both on to the stage.

      ‘One after the other,’ he said easily. ‘The first to come, the first to be served.’

      He helped the judge up as he spoke, and the pale young man leaped up beside them.

      ‘I say,’ he said nervously, ‘would you mind if my pet went first?’

      He held up the white mouse as he spoke, while the audience, thinking it was some intentional comic relief, tittered complacently.

      Satsuma smiled also, but his English was not equal to the situation, and, ignoring the young man, he led Judge Lobbett over to the cabinet.

      ‘Haig,’ announced the foolish-looking young man in a loud voice, ‘will be more than disappointed if he’s not allowed to go first. This is his birthday and he’s been promised the best and the first of everything. Surely, sir,’ he went on, turning to the old man, ‘you wouldn’t deprive my young friend of his birthday thrill?’

      Judge Lobbett contented himself by regarding the young man with a slow cold smile for some seconds, but the other appeared not in the least abashed.

      Meanwhile, with a flourish from the orchestra, Satsuma touched the cabinet with his wand and the doors swung open, disclosing a safe-like metal-lined compartment whose grilled sides shone in the brilliant light.

      ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen,’ said the magician, turning to his audience, ‘I shall invite this gentleman’—he indicated the older man—‘to step in here. Then I shall close these doors. When I open them again he will be gone. You shall search the whole ship, ladies and gentlemen, the stage, under the stage—you shall not find him. Then I will shut the doors once more. Once more they will fly open, and this gentleman shall be back again as you see him now. Moreover, he will not be able to tell you where he has been hiding. Now, sir, if you please.’

      ‘What?’ said the irrepressible young man, darting forward, consternation in his pale eyes. ‘Can’t Haig go first? Are you going to disappoint him after all?’

      The audience was becoming restive, and Lobbett turned upon the importunate one, mildly annoyed.

      ‘I don’t know who you are, sir,’ he said, in a low tone, ‘but you’re making a darn nuisance of yourself. I’m genuinely interested in this experiment, and I think everyone else is. Go and play with your mouse on deck, sir.’

      On the last word he turned and stepped towards the cabinet, the doors of which stood open to receive him. The man who, by this time, was regarded by everyone in the room as a source of embarrassment, seemed suddenly to lose all sense of decorum.

      With an angry exclamation he elbowed the unsuspecting old man out of the way, and before the magician could stop him deliberately dropped the small white mouse upon the glittering floor of the cabinet.

      Then he stepped back sharply.

      There was a tiny hiss, only just loud enough to be heard among the audience: a sickening, terrifying sound.

      For a moment everyone in the lounge held his breath. With a convulsive movement the mouse crumpled up on the polished steel grille, where it slowly blackened and shrivelled before their eyes.

      There was an instant of complete stupefaction.

      The significance of this extraordinary incident dawned slowly. The men upon the platform to whom the thing had been so near stiffened with horror as the explanation occurred to them.

      Marlowe Lobbett was the first to move. He sprang on to the platform by his father’s side and stood with him looking down at the charred spot on the cabinet floor.

      It was at this moment that the pale young man with the spectacles, apparently grasping the situation for the first time, let out a howl of mingled grief and astonishment.

      ‘Oh! my poor Haig! What has happened to him? What has happened to him?’ He bent forward to peer down into the cabinet.

      ‘Look out, you fool!’ Judge Lobbett’s voice was unrecognizable as he caught the incautious young man by his collar and jerked him backwards. ‘Can’t you see!’ His voice rose high and uncontrolled. ‘That cabinet is live! Your pet has been electrocuted!’

      The words startled everyone.

      An excited murmur followed a momentary silence. Then a woman screamed.

      Concert officials and ship’s officers hurried on to the platform. The noise became greater, and a startled, bewildered crowd swept up to the platform end of the room.

      Judge Lobbett and his tall son were surrounded by an excited group of officials.

      Satsuma chattered wildly in his own tongue.

      The pale young man with the spectacles appeared to be on the verge of fainting with horror. Even the complacent Mr Barber was shaken out of his habitual affability. His heavy jaws sagged, his greasy eyes grew blank with astonishment.

      All the time the cabinet remained glowing with a now evil radiance, bizarre and horrible, a toy that had become a thing of terror.

      The arrival of the chief engineer roused the general stupor. He was a lank Belfast Irishman, yellow-haired, lantern-jawed, and deaf as a post. He gave his orders in СКАЧАТЬ