the corpse" is seen standing up at the back of "the
Pit," holding the sack with the rope and seal--intact--in his hand.
Such was the marvellous feat which had been accomplished in Martin and
Davenport's Hall night in and night out for years, the solution of
which no one as yet had been able to discover. One can imagine, in
these circumstances, the tremendous excitement of the audience at the
prospect of seeing this notorious puzzle tackled--and tackled by a
member of a Firm which was already reputed to be doing all kinds of
weird and extraordinary things. But, whereas it was quite obvious that
John Martin was greatly perturbed (his eyebrows were working
nervously, and his lips and fingers twitching), Curtis, on the other
hand, was as cool as possible--he literally did not turn a hair.

"Now, gentlemen," he said, turning to the referees, "keep your eyes
well skinned and observe everything I do. Ladies and gentlemen," he
went on, raising his voice, "I am now about to show you how the coffin
trick is done. Observe me--I'm 'the corpse'--Mr. Kelson, here, is the
operator--" and Matt Kelson, rather to Hamar's annoyance advanced,
down the stage to take part in the proceedings.

"Watch me get into the sack!" He stepped into it as he spoke. "Look at
what I have in my hand," he went on, holding up his right hand in full
view of the audience. "I have a plug of wood covered with the same
material as this sack. As soon as I stoop down and the sack is pulled
over me I shall thrust this plug into the mouth of it and Mr. Kelson
will bind the sack round it. I shall then be put into the coffin. You
think you know this coffin but you don't. See!"--and stepping out of
the sack he tapped the head of the coffin, which was very broad and
deep. "Come closer!" and he beckoned to the referees, whose numbers
were now augmented by three newspaper reporters--representatives of
the _Daily Snapper_, the _Planet_ and the _Hooter_ respectively. "Here
is a secret panel worked by a spring. I will press, and you will press
too."

And amidst a breathless silence--the nine members of the audience on
the stage following every movement--Curtis put his hand inside the
head of the coffin and touched a very slight elevation in the wood. In
an instant, by a wonderfully neat piece of mechanism, a panel slid
back, leaving just sufficient room for a man of moderate dimensions to
squeeze through.

Everyone now looked at John Martin--he was leaning back in his cha