Harry Houdini Mysteries Read Online Free Page A

Clairmont’s.”
    “No. She’d never tip her own table, in any event. She’s a very wealthy woman. She’d hire someone to do it for her. Listen, Dash, I know it sounds like a lot of hokum, but there were some remarkable things that happened last night. Truly remarkable.”
    “And there will be a rational explanation for each of them, Biggs.”
    “I would have thought so,” he said. “I spent the whole day digging for answers. You know I can be a real brass-plated bloodhound when I have to be, but this has me stumped.” He pulled out a leather-bound notebook. “You’ve heard of Lucius Craig?”
    I shook my head.
    “Apparently he has Mrs. Clairmont wrapped around his finger.”
    “He was the medium?”
    “The what?”
    “The medium, Biggs. The spirit guide—the one who makes contact with the supernatural realm. You’ll need to learn the lingo if you intend to keep up.”
    “That’s why I’ve come, Dash. You and the ape man havedone a bit of medicine show fakery, haven’t you?”
    “Biggs, you really must stop calling him that.”
    “Oh, I shall. Just as soon as he evolves into something vaguely human. I imagine your brother would have given the estimable Charles Darwin a few uneasy moments. Natural selection seems to have looked the other way when it came upon Harry Houdini.”
    “Biggs. Really.” I glanced again at my mother. Thankfully, she was too absorbed in her cooking to pay any heed.
    “Sorry, Dash,” said Biggs. “I forget myself sometimes.”
    It was a familiar rant. Harry and Biggs had nurtured an intense dislike of one another since childhood, and neither showed any sign of growing out of it. Biggs had often found himself on the receiving end of Harry’s bullying nature, and unlike me, he had never grown comfortable responding in kind. As we grew older, however, Biggs learned to use words every bit as forcefully as his fists, and this was an arena that left my brother at a decided disadvantage.
    “So,” Biggs continued, dabbing at his lips with a napkin, “have the two of you worked the spirit angle or not?”
    “There was a brief period when we were travelling with an outfit called Dr. Hill’s California Concert Company. We were doing tent shows through Kansas and Oklahoma, and everybody wanted to see a spook show because the Davenport Brothers had passed through and caused a sensation.”
    “The Davenport Brothers? Something to do with a ‘spirit cabinet,’ right?”
    I nodded. “The cabinet was a great big bureau with swinging doors on the front. It was set on a raised platform at center stage. Inside there was a long wooden bench. The brothers, tied hand and foot, were placed inside the cabinet, facing each other. There was a number of tambourines and trumpets and such placed on the floor at their feet. At a signal from the brothers, their assistants lowered the stage lights and swung the doors closed. All at once the audience heard strange noises—janglingtambourines, strumming guitars, that sort of thing. Disembodied hands poked out through openings in the cabinet and musical instruments could be seen floating in mid-air.”
    Biggs snorted. “So they’d freed themselves from the ropes! Where’s the mystery in that? Your brother does it all the time! It’s a simple escape!”
    “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But at regular intervals during the demonstration, the assistants threw open the doors. Inside, the brothers were seen to be securely fastened, breathing hard as though deep in a trance, with their heads bowed and their eyes closed in concentration. When the doors swung shut, the strange happenings started up again—instantly.”
    “A clever act,” said Biggs. “Nothing more.”
    “The Davenports rarely—if ever—laid claim to supernatural powers, but their audiences were quick to form that impression, and the brothers did little to dispel the notion.”
    “Sounds like overripe boilings to me.”
    “The public seemed to like it, and it opened the way