IN THE PAY BOX 



a fortnight after. He added that I should hire a closed 

 carriage and that he should wear a cloak and a veil. 

 Now, in the very bad weather in some other parts, 

 when the flies and mosquitoes simply ate you alive, 

 we used to don a sort of coarse silk netted veil, but 

 I couldn't stand him swanking about this mystery 

 business. 



He was extremely ready witted, very bright but 

 quite uneducated, although he told me he had been 

 a schoolmaster in America before starting out as a 

 mind reader. 



I found the money for him to have a new fit-out of 

 clothes and, talk about not seeking publicity, when he 

 got his new light grey frock-coat suit he would never 

 leave the bars, and used to show conjuring tricks to 

 all and sundry, much to my annoyance, as I wanted 

 them all kept fresh for the grand opening night. He 

 could do one or two cabinet stunts fairly well too ; 

 and I had his fit-up repaired. In the true colonial 

 style we had a brass band outside the town hall for 

 the first night of the show. I was in the pay box ; 

 it was the dear old price that used to take so well out 

 there — " Three, two, one " (shillings). It was the 

 most fascinating half -hour that I ever had in my life, 

 raking in the money ; I had indeed struck oil, I thought. 

 We took eighty odd pounds, and, as the hall was not 

 expensive, I began to hope for the best. He gave a 

 very fair show to start with, but there had been a local 

 football dinner or something on earlier in the evening 

 and the members came en bloc to the shilling seats — 

 they queered our pitch, chiefly by mocking his curious 

 English. 



The climax came when he did a Davenport Brothers 

 exposure and was supposed to interview the ghost of 

 a certain Captain Cuttle. He had a curious bit of 



69 



