certainly the audience was restive. in the first place it felt that it had been defrauded, seeing that cissie bradford, whose smiling face adorned the bills outside, had, failed to appear, and secondly, it considered that the deputy for that famous lady was more than inadequate. to the little man who sweated in the glare of the limelight and juggled desperately with glass balls in a vain effort to steady his nerve it was apparent that his turn was a failure. and as he worked he could have cried with disappointment, for his was a trial performance, and a year’s engagement in the hennings’ group of music-halls would have rewarded success. yet his tricks, things that he had done with the utmost ease a thousand times, had been a succession of blunders, rather mirth-provoking than mystifying to the audience. presently one of the glass balls fell crashing on the stage, and amidst the jeers of the gallery he turned to his wife, who served as his assistant.
“i’ve lost my chance,” he said, with a sob; “i can’t do it!”
“never mind, dear,” she whispered. “there’s a nice steak and onions at home for supper.”
“it’s no use,” he said despairingly. “i’ll try the disappearing trick and then get off. i’m done here.” he turned back to the audience.
“ladies and gentlemen,” he said to the mockers in a wavering voice, “i will now present to you the concluding item of my entertainment. i will cause this lady to disappear under your very eyes, without the aid of any mechanical contrivance or artificial device.” this was the merest showman’s patter, for, as a matter of fact, it was not a very wonderful illusion. but as he led his wife forward to present her to the audience the conjurer was wondering whether the mishaps that had ruined his chance would meet him even here. if something should go wrong — he felt his wife’s hand tremble in his, and he pressed it tightly to reassure her. he must make an effort, an effort of will, and then no mistakes would happen. for a second the lights danced before his eyes, then he pulled himself together. if an earthquake should disturb the curtains and show molly creeping ignominiously away behind he would still meet his fate like a man. he turned round to conduct his wife to the little alcove from which she should vanish. she was not on the stage!
for a minute he did not guess the greatness of the disaster. then he realised that the theatre was intensely quiet, and that he would have to explain that the last item of his programme was even more of a fiasco than the rest. owing to a sudden indisposition — his skin tingled at the thought of the hooting. his tongue rasped upon cracking lips as he braced himself and bowed to the audience.
then came the applause. again and again it broke out from all over the house, while the curtain rose and fell, and the conjurer stood on the stage, mute, uncomprehending. what had happened? at first he had thought they were mocking him, but it was impossible to misjudge the nature of the applause. besides, the stage-manager was allowing him call after call, as if he were a star. when at length the curtain remained down, and the orchestra struck up the opening bars of the next song, he staggered off into the wings as if he were drunk. there he met mr. james hennings himself.
“you’ll do,” said the great man; “that last trick was neat. you ought to polish up the others though. i suppose you don’t want to tell me how you did it? well, well, come in the morning and we’ll fix up a contract.”
and so, without having said a word, the conjurer found himself hustled off by the vaudeville napoleon. mr. hennings had something more to say to his manager.
“bit rum,” he said. “did you see it?”
“queerest thing we’ve struck.”
“how was it done do you think?”
“can’t imagine. there one minute on his arm, gone the next, no trap, or curtain, or anything.”
“money in it, eh?”
“biggest hit of the century, i should think.”
“i’ll go and fix up a contract and get him to sign it tonight. get on with it.” and mr. james hennings fled to his office.
meanwhile the conjurer was wandering in the wings with the drooping heart of a lost child. what had happened? why was he a success, and why did people stare so oddly, and what had become of his wife? when he asked them the stage hands laughed, and said they had not seen her. why should they laugh? he wanted her to explain things, and hear their good luck. but she was not in her dressing-room, she was not anywhere. for a moment he felt like crying.
then, for the second time that night, he pulled himself together. after all, there was no reason to be upset. he ought to feel very pleased about the contract, however it had happened. it seemed that his wife had left the stage in some queer way without being seen. probably to increase the mystery she had gone straight home in her stage dress, and had succeeded in dodging the stage-door keeper. it was all very strange; but, of course, there must be some simple explanation like that. he would take a cab home and find her there already. there was a steak and onions for supper.
as he drove along in the cab he became convinced that this theory was right. molly had always been clever, and this time she had certainly succeeded in surprising everybody. at the door of his house he gave the cabman a shilling for himself with a light heart. he could afford it now. he ran up the steps cheerfully and opened the door. the passage was quite dark, and he wondered why his wife hadn’t lit the gas.
“molly!” he cried, “molly!”
the small, weary-eyed servant came out of the kitchen on a savoury wind of onions.
“hasn’t missus come home with you, sir?” she said.
the conjurer thrust his hand against the wall to steady himself, and the pattern of the wall-paper seemed to burn his finger-tips.
“not here!” he gasped at the frightened girl. “then where is she? where is she?”
“i don’t know, sir,” she began stuttering; but the conjurer turned quickly and ran out of the house. of course, his wife must be at the theatre. it was absurd ever to have supposed that she could leave the theatre in her stage dress unnoticed; and now she was probably worrying because he had not waited for her. how foolish he had been.
it was a quarter of an hour before he found a cab, and the theatre was dark and empty when he got back to it. he knocked at the stage door, and the night watchman opened it.
“my wife?” he cried. “there’s no one here now, sir,” the man answered respectfully, for he knew that a new star had risen that night.
the conjurer leant against the doorpost faintly.
“take me up to the dressing-rooms,” he said. “i want to see whether she has been, there while i was away.”
the watchman led the way along the dark passages. “i shouldn’t worry if i were you, sir,” he said. “she can’t have gone far.” he did not know anything about it, but he wanted to be sympathetic.
“god knows,” the conjurer muttered, “i can’t understand this at all.”
in the dressing-room molly’s clothes still lay neatly folded as she had left them when they went on the stage that night, and when he saw them his last hope left the conjurer, and a strange thought came into his mind.
“i should like to go down on the stage,” he said, “and see if there is anything to tell me of her.”
the night watchman looked at the conjurer as if he thought he was mad, but he followed him down to the stage in silence. when he was there the conjurer leaned forward suddenly, and his face was filled with a wistful eagerness.
“molly!” he called, “molly!”
but the empty theatre gave him nothing but echoes in reply.
