John Fitzgerald GB 06 Return of by Return of the Great Brain Page B

seen a magic show in Adenville. Maybe some of them will come too.”
    Papa always stopped at the post office to get the mail from our box before coming home for supper. He must have seen the sign because he stared at Tom with a suspicious look when he entered the parlor.
    “I saw the sign for your magic show,” he said. “Don’t tell me that you are backsliding and this is another of your great brain’s schemes to swindle people.”
    Tom looked as if Papa had accused him of robbing the bank. “How can it be a swindle when I guarantee satisfaction
     
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    or your money back?” he asked. “I know if I’d never seen a magic show that I’d gladly pay a dime to see one.”
    “A magic show, yes,” Papa said. “But magic acts are performed by professional magicians.”
    “I may not be a professional,” Tom said, “but with my great brain I can do some tricks as good as any professional. And if you don’t believe me come and see for yourself.”
    Then Tom told Papa about Murdock the Magician and the book on magic tricks he had bought. Papa was so relieved to find out that Tom wasn’t backsliding that he offered to help.
    “You will need seats for the audience,” he said. “I’ll get Mr, Hoffman at the lumber yard to lend us some planks we can lay on bales of hay.”
    “Thanks, Papa,” Tom said. “But I sure wish I had a high silk hat to use for one of my tricks.”
    “Your mother knows where my plug hat is,” Papa said. “Tell her I said you could use it.”
    Tom should have charged admission to the barn on Saturday morning. Papa and Uncle Mark came into the cor-ral with my uncle’s team and wagon. They had a load of planks loaned to them by Mr. Hoffman. About twenty kids kept getting in their way as they laid the planks on bales of hay, but they finally had six rows of seats for the audience. While they were doing this Tom and I put up a curtain in front of the box table. We used a piece of clothes line and an old sheet Mamma had given my brother.
    The next day Tom asked Mamma to serve Sunday din-ner an hour early to give him time to get ready for the magic show. We were all finished eating by one o’clock.
    “I’ve got to get my props ready now,” Tom said as he
     
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    stood up to excuse himself from the table.
    “Just a moment,” Mamma said. “When I got your father’s high silk hat out I noticed his evening cloak. During our honeymoon in Denver we saw a magician perform at a vaudeville show. He wore a full dress suit, a high silk hat, and an evening cloak. You’ll find the cloak and hat in my clothes closet.”
    “Thanks, Mamma,” Tom said.
    Frankie and I went with Tom into Mamma’s bedroom. He got the plug hat and the evening cloak that was black silk on the outside and lined with white silk on the inside. We went to the barn. Tom put the cloak and hat on the box table, Then he and I climbed up the rope ladder to his loft. He handed me a cigar box, an alarm clock, and a steel bar about two feet long and half an inch thick. He picked up a shoe box and then we climbed down the rope ladder.
    Tom opened the shoe box and removed a candleholder with a candle in it, a half-open box of kitchen matches, a steel ring about an inch in diameter, and a red bandanna handkerchief, which he laid out on the box table. He took the shoe box and went back up to his loft. When he returned I asked him what was in the shoe box.
    “You’ll find out during the show,” he said. “Now, J.D., I’m going to hire you to collect admissions, and remember no credit or promises. Keep the money in the cigar box.”
    “What am I supposed to do with the alarm clock?” I asked.
    “You will need it to know what time it is,” he answered. “I’ve got it all set. Don’t open the barn doors until a quarter to two. At one minute to two you close the bam doors and bring the cigar box and alarm clock backstage.”
    “Where is backstage?” I asked.
     
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    “Behind the curtain,” Tom said. “Then you