t concealed as is a secret trap door.

When Joe laid the paper on the stage he placed it so that the square,
double flap in it was exactly over the trap in the stage floor. He then
drew the page of the paper that he had held out to the audience toward
himself, exposing the trap for use, but because it was so carefully
made, and the cut was so fine, it was not visible from the front.

Helen took her place in the chair, which, of course, was a trick one. It
was fitted with a concealed rod and a cap, and it was over this cap,
brought out at the proper moment, that Joe carefully placed the black
veil, when he was pretending to mesmerize Helen. There was a cross rod,
also concealed in the chair, and on either end of this, something like
the epaulettes of a soldier, so that when these ends were under the veil
and the cap was in place it looked as though some one sat in the chair,
when, really, no one did.

Helen was in the chair at the start. But as soon as she was covered by
the veil she began to get out The seat of the chair was hinged within
its frame As Helen sat on it, and after she had been covered with the
veil, she rested her weight on her hands, which were placed on the
extreme outer edges of this seat frame. She pulled a catch which caused
the seat to drop, and at the same time the trap beneath her, including
the prepared newspaper, was opened by an attendant. The black veil all
about the chair prevented the audience seeing this.

Helen lowered herself down through the dropped seat of the chair,
through the trap, and under the stage. And while she was doing this it
still looked as if she were in the chair, for the false cap and the
extended cross rod made outlines as if of a human form beneath the black
veil.

As soon as Helen was out of the chair and beneath the stage an attendant
closed the newspaper and wooden floor traps. Joe then suddenly raised
the veil, taking in its folds the false cap and the cross piece which
had represented Helen's shoulders. They were thin and light--these
pieces of trick apparatus--and no one suspected they were in the veil.
The hinged seat of the chair snapped back in place by means of a spring,
and when Joe stepped aside, holding the veil, there was the empty chair;
and the newspaper, which he picked up, seemed to preclude the
possibility of there having been a trap in the stage. But Joe was
careful how he exhibited this paper to his audience.

And so it was that the lady "vanis