The papers were full to overflowing with
accounts of that fatal night's proceedings, and of the marvellous
gratis exhibition given on the succeeding evening by the Modern
Sorcery Company Ltd.
The _Hooter_, for example, had a full column on the middle page headed
in large type--
EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT MARTIN AND DAVENPORT'S
THE GREATEST CONJURING TRICKS IN THE WORLD SOLVED!
Whilst the _Daily Snapper_, determined to be none the less sensational,
began thus:
MYSTERIES NO LONGER!
"THE BRASS COFFIN TRICK" AND "EVE AT THE WINDOW" DONE AT LAST!
MARTIN AND DAVENPORT LOSE THEIR PRESTIGE
This was bad enough, but the _Planet_ published a paragraph that was
even more galling, viz.--
"Now that Messrs. Martin and Davenport's great Illusions have been
explained and their Hall in Kingsway, so long famous as the Home
of Puzzledom, of necessity shorn of its glamour, one need not be
surprised if those who delight in this kind of mystery, should
turn elsewhere for their amusement. The British Public, which is
above all things enamoured of novelty, will, doubtless, now resort
to the Modern Sorcery Company, whose House in Cockspur Street bids
fair to become the future home of everything uncanny. Their
programme--to the uninitiated--presents possibilities--and
impossibilities."
So said the _Planet_, and as the number of attendances at Martin and
Davenports' fell from 820 on the night of the challenge to 89 on the
succeeding night, whilst the Modern Sorcery Company's Hall was filled
to overflowing, there was every prospect of its prediction being
verified.
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