The Secret Life of Houdini Read Online Free

arrival discovered that Theo had lost the change. Cecilia was near tears, but Ehrich quickly conceived a plan to remedy the damage. He grabbed Theo and with his last nickel in hand, they went to a nearby florist shop. He bought a flower, went outside, and quickly sold it for a dime. They marched back to the florist shop and bought two flowers and this time both boys sold theirs for a dime. A few hours later they were back home with a fresh $2 in change, the fruits of the nine-year-old’s resourcefulness.
     
    Ehrich Weiss hadn’t even made a dent in the heavy handcuffs when the hacksaw blade snapped in two—for the sixth time—which did not amuse the unusually large, repellently ugly man who had the misfortune of currently being fettered by those resilient manacles.
    “You’re lucky that blade didn’t cut me up,” the man snarled ominously.
    Ehrich swallowed hard. He didn’t want to show that he was scared, never wanted to do that, but he was. He didn’t even know if it was possible to saw through the cuffs and he certainly didn’t want to disappoint his boss, Mr. Hanauer. Ehrich had been a fixture at Hanauer’s shop on Appleton Street since he was a little kid living around the corner. It wasn’t the guns that Hanauer sold; those didn’t really interest him. Ehrich was fascinated by the locks. He had always been intrigued by all types of locks and fasteners and hardware, practicing at home by opening the drawers, closets, and pantries of his house at will, using a small buttonhook. He had become notorious in Appleton as the boy who had unlocked all the doors to the shops on College Avenue one night. Now that he had turned eleven, and since things were so hard in Milwaukee, his parents had decided to send Ehrich back to Appleton to start a formal apprenticeship with Hanauer.
    But this was baptism by fire. The sheriff had come into the shop one day, with a behemoth of a prisoner in tow. He was the scariest and ugliest person Ehrich had ever seen—sporting a bristly beard punctuated by a long, ominous-looking blue-white scar.
    “John, for some unknown reason, the justice found this here feller innocent as charged, but my damn key broke off in the lock,” the sheriff explained. “Think you can saw through this?”
    Just as Hanauer started examining the cuffs, he realized it was lunch time. He called Ehrich aside.
    “Ehrie, get a hacksaw and cut that handcuff off. I’m going out for a drink with the sheriff.”
    Hanauer was known to throw back a few beers at lunch, a daily ritual that usually took him fifty-five minutes, but with ten minutes left Ehrich still hadn’t gotten the bracelets off.
    The hacksaw was out of the question. He couldn’t smash the cuffs off. In fact, he wasn’t too comfortable about being in a store alone with this guy and a case full of handguns and derringers, even if he was handcuffed. Then, suddenly, he remembered his buttonhook. Ehrich had customized it over the years, and it had proved infallible in opening the occasional door or desk drawer. Why not use it on a handcuff lock? They were more sophisticated but maybe, just maybe…
    But no, it was too big. Unperturbed, he fashioned another one out of piano wire. The giant man eyed him with suspicion.
    He slowly inserted the pick into one of the cuff locks.
    “Can you just look away for a second?” Ehrich asked politely. The last thing he wanted was for this guy to see how he was going to open the cuffs.
    “Like hell I can,” the giant said. And he almost stared a hole in the cuffs.
    Ehrich had no choice. Fumbling from nerves, he awkwardly stuck his pick in the mechanism of the cuff. And, to both his and the prisoner’s amazement, after about a minute, the cuff clicked open. It took him half the time to get the other cuff open.
    To Ehrich’s great relief, the sheriff and Hanauer entered the shop just then.
    “Well, you’re free to go. But if I was you, I’d put a little distance between myself and the great municipality of