“I surely do!” murmured the boy.
“Now to finish my little preliminary talk,” went on the sleight-of-hand artist, “I will mention the table. That, or in fact several tables or little stands, are of great aid to a magician. In the early days the performers used a big table, all draped about with velvet, and concealed under this velvet was an assistant.
“When the magician wanted to cause an object to disappear he would place it on the table just over a hole, which was not in view because it was hidden by a trap-door. Then he would put a hollow cone or hollow block over the object, which would at once drop through the hole in the table, into the hands of the concealed assistant.
“But as performers became more clever they used simpler tables. Some, of course, seemed to be just spindle-legged affairs, but mirrors fitted in made a place where objects could be concealed, though it seemed as though the audience could look right through the legs of the table. But there are some tables which are not at all mechanical, except that they have a place at the back for a servante, or shelf, below the level of the table, and on this shelf objects can be placed when the performer has to get rid of them for the time being.”
“It sounds complicated,” murmured Joe.
“It’s simple when you understand it,” said the professor. “I sometimes use as a servante a little mesh bag, which I can fasten to the back of a chair—that is if the back can’t be seen through. Then of course I have little tables—console tables they were called in the days of Robert-Houdin.
“These tables stand close to the draperies which are back of the stage, and above the tables is a slit cut in the curtain, the fall of the draperies concealing it. Through this slit my assistant can thrust his hand and take away or substitute certain articles. That will be part of your work.
“So then, with the wand, with a suit having in it many secret pockets, and with the help of a servante in one form or another we do most of our tricks, never forgetting that palming is one vital need. Of course I have elaborate pieces of apparatus—that is elaborate for me, some performers carry much more than I do. But the tendency in these days is to get away from big mechanical effects, since the audience knows there is some trick about them, even though it can’t be seen.
“Of course you know some of what I have told you, Joe, but I thought it no harm to repeat it. Now I’ll give you a little drill, and we’ll be ready for to-night.”
The professor told Joe the principal tricks he proposed performing that night. In comparatively few of them was Joe’s aid needed, except that he was to be on the stage to hand the professor articles when wanted, or to remove them—passive sort of work.