The Prestige by Christopher Priest Page B

one or more cards will be forced into use, the
     eye-dazzling backcloth that allows much necessary magical business to go on unnoticed, the
     black-painted table or prop that the audience cannot see properly, dummies and doubles and
     stooges and substitutes and blinds. And an inventive magician will embrace novelty. Any
     new device or toy or invention that comes into world should provoke the thought: “How
     could I make a new trick with that?” Thus, in the recent past we have seen new tricks that
     employ the reciprocating engine, the telephone, electricity, and one remarkable effect
     memorably created with Dr Warble's smoke-bomb toy.
    Magic has no mystery to magicians. We work variations of standard methods. What will seem
     new or baffling to an audience is simply a technical challenge for other professionals. If
     an innovative new illusion is developed, it is only a matter of time before the effect is
     reproduced by others.
    Every illusion can be explained, be it by the use of a concealed compartment, by an
     adroitly placed mirror, by an assistant planted in the audience to act as “volunteer”, or
     by simple misdirection of the audience's attention.
    Now I hold my hands before you, fingers spread so that you can see nothing is concealed
     within them, and say: The New Transported Man is an illusion like every other, and it can
     be explained. But by a combination of a simple secret that has been kept securely, many
     years of practice, a certain amount of audience misdirection, and the use of conventional
     magic techniques it has become the keystone of my act and my career. It has also defied
     Angier's best efforts to penetrate its mystery, as I shall soon record.
    #############
    Sarah and I have been with the children on a short holiday along the south coast, & I took
     my notebook with me.
    We went first to Hastings, because it is years since I was there, but we did not stay
     long. The place has started a decline that I fear will prove irreversible. Father's yard,
     which was sold on his death, has been sold again. Now it is a bakery. A lot of houses have
     been built in the valley behind the house, & a railway line to Ashford is soon to run
     through.
    After Hastings we went to Bexhill. Then to Eastbourne. Then to Brighton. Then to Bognor.
    My first comment on the notebook is that it was I who tried to humiliate Angier, & I, in
     turn, who was humiliated by him. Other than this detail, which is after all not too
     important, I think my account of what happened is accurate, even in its other details.
    I am putting in a lot of comments about the secret, & therefore making much of it. This
     strikes me as ironic, after I went to such pains to emphasize how trivial most magical
     secrets really are.
    I do not think my secret is trivial. It is easily guessed, as Angier has apparently done,
     in spite of what I have written. Others have probably guessed too.
    Anyone who reads this narrative will probably work it out for themselves.
    What cannot be guessed is the
    
    
     effect
    
    
     the secret has had on my life. This is the real reason Angier will never solve the whole
     mystery, unless I myself give him the answer. He would never credit the extent to which my
     life has been shaped towards holding the secret intact. That is what matters.
    [I am still unclear for whom this account is intended. What is this “posterity” for which
     I write so knowingly? Is the account for publication & circulation within the magical
     fraternity? If so, I must remove many of the personal details. One or two of my colleagues
     (including, of course, David Devant & Nevil Maskelyne) have published technical
     explanations of their illusions, & my great mentor, Anderson, paid his bills by regularly
     selling small trade secrets. There is a precedent. Circulation of this sort would be
     acceptable, although I think it should only be released after Angier's demise (his certain
     demise, that