The Saratoga Trunk Mystery.—A lady is put into a bag and locked in a trunk, on top of which a gentleman takes a seat. Two assistants hold a cloth in front of the trunk for a few seconds. On taking away the cloth the lady is seen sitting on the trunk while inside of it, after unlocking the same, is found the gentleman tied in the bag.
The actors in this illusion have to work with extreme quickness.
The bag in which the lady is tied has at the bottom a false seam, made
Fig. 69.—Section of Trunk of wide stitches, so that when one end of the thread is pulled the whole comes out easily leaving the bottom of bag open.
In this way the lady escapes from the bag without injuring the ties in any way. The lid of the trunk is prepared so that one section of it opens inward (Fig. 69 h). The frame (Fig. 70) is solid, whereas the strip F which runs across the top can be pushed sideways. To open the
Fig. 70.—Frame of Trunk trunk the strip F is pushed aside, which releases a concealed mechanism that keeps the false panel shut. The gentleman opens the panel, in the manner above described, whereupon the lady gets out of the trunk. She assists the gentleman to get into the bag, and closing the panel, takes her seat on the top of the trunk.
CHAPTER XI