connection a minute before I go into the cabinet. You saved my
life--this is the second time. Once at the fireworks factory, and
again to-night. I'll be so deeply in your debt, Joe, that I can never
pay you."

"Oh, don't worry about that," laughed the boy wizard, now much relieved
in mind. With the professor safe he could go out on the stage with a
light heart and an easy mind. He was used to facing the public, but
this meant that he would have to do more tricks than usual, and some
that were particularly the professor's own, though Joe knew how they
were worked.

When the physician had relieved the sufferer, Joe called a carriage and
sent the magician to the hotel where they were staying. Then the
pantomimist having finished, Joe prepared to go on with some illusions.
And right here, while Joe is making his preparations, a description of
the "fire trick" can be given.

The cabinet was, of course, a trick one. That is, it was provided with
hidden electric contrivances so that when the professor stepped into
it, by merely pressing a button he could have a shower of sparks shot
out all around him. As he was insulated, these sparks could not injure
him.

On the heavy silk robe he wore there had been painted the grinning
skeleton. It was painted with a secret chemical paint, and when
subjected to a flow of electricity the bones and skull showed outlined
in fire. The professor, keeping well back toward the rear of the
cabinet, was invisible.

Tying the ropes about him was not necessary as he did not leave the
cabinet anyhow, but it added to the effectiveness of the illusion. But
on this evening, after the electric wire broke causing a short circuit,
the tying of the ropes was well-nigh fatal, for the professor could not
move in order to escape, and had to stay while the current burned him.
Luckily, however, Joe acted in time.

As has been intimated, the two front legs of the cabinet were really
the positive and negative termini for the wires that were inside the
box. These legs stood in two sockets in the floor of the stage, and to
them ran the wires from the theatre's circuit. When the helpers lifted
the cabinet up, to show, ostensibly, that it had no connection with the
floor, they put the legs down in the hidden sockets. Thus the
connections were made. As can be seen, Joe had but to lift the cabinet
away to break the connection.

In spite of the accident, the trick had ended satisfactorily, thanks