Accordingly the youth shouted, but still the candle burned.
“Louder!” urged Joe, and the youth fairly yelled. But still the candle burned brightly. “You see not every one has the magic power,” stated the young performer. “Now let me show you how it is done.”
“Just help this young man down the steps,” Joe directed his assistant, the boy previously referred to. “I am afraid he may have strained himself shouting.”
There was a laugh at this, and the audience watched Joe’s helper solicitously assisting the volunteer down the steps.
While this was going on Joe had taken the lighted candle and had walked back with it to one of his tables, on which he placed it.
“Now I will show you how it is done,” he said. “Ah, the wind has blown out the candle, but as the wind can not light it again I will first do so with a match, and we will then call on the forces of magic to do the rest.”
Joe lighted the candle, and then, standing some little distance from the table on which the glowing taper stood, he pointed his wand at it, and cried:
“Out, candle!”
Immediately the candle was extinguished.
“No, I didn’t blow it out.” Joe said, pretending that some one in the audience had said that. “To prove it I will, without moving, light it from where I stand.” Then he exclaimed: