He took the girl’s hand and guided her into the coffin. Stunned and wide-eyed, she followed his lead, and lay down among the puffy satin. Two brawny assistants turned the coffin onto a pair of sawhorses, and one closed the lid. He latched it shut, then turned to the audience.
“This is an old trick,” he said with a smile, “but with a twist.” He turned to the brawny assistant, who handed him a saw’s all. He put on a pair of protection glasses and fired up the saw, then started sawing one part of the coffin. Slowly, he cut off chunks, not only in the middle, but at the foot, the head, the neck, the arms, bits and pieces fell away in piles of sawdust on the floor.
There was no blood. Hunks of wood and satin hit the floor, and it was at that time that the audience realized the girl had vanished.
Finally he stopped, and the men turned the coffin over, and he flipped open the lid. The girl was still inside, untouched, just as stunned and phased out as she was before. He led her out, away from the sawdust, and said to her, “On the count of three you will awaken. One…two…”
“I know how you did it!”
“Three,” he said, ignoring the heckler. The girl blinked and stared at him, then at the mess on the floor.
“There’s a trap door on the side!”
He turned back to the audience. “Thank you for – “
Then a man jumped onstage. He was tall, thin, and had a mustache and goatee. His eyes were bright with zeal. The two brawny assistants stepped forward but the magician held them back. “Good, sir, if you please, show me how I did it.”
The man stepped forward, and went over to the coffin. He stood, regarding it, and then banged on the side of the coffin. It popped open on the side. “She climbed out here and then climbed back in.”
“How could she do it without anyone seeing her?”
“A plank. You fed a plank through into the curtain and she rolled out of it then rolled back in.”
The magician merely smiled. “All this without the audience seeing it.”
“They can’t see it, that side’s on the side near the curtains.” The man peered at the girl. “And she’s your assistant, I saw her two nights ago.”
“She is often at my shows,” the magician admitted. “Why don’t you come to my show tomorrow, and you can be the man in the coffin? Then you can see how it’s done.”
“Damn right, I’ll be there.”