melet trick now, Joe."

"All right. That ought to go well. And you are getting ready for----"

"The fire trick," interrupted Professor Alonzo Rosello, as he and his
young assistant, Joe Strong, stood bowing and smiling in response to
the applause of the crowd that had gathered in the theatre to witness
the feats of "Black Art, Magic, Illusion, Legerdemain, Prestidigitation
and Allied Sciences." That was what the program called it, anyhow.

"The fire trick!" repeated Joe. "Do you think it will work all right
now?"

"I think it will. I've had the apparatus overhauled, and you know we
can depend on the electric current here. It isn't likely to fail just
at the wrong moment."

"No, that's so, still----"

Again Joe had to bow, as did Professor Rosello, for the applause
continued. They were both sharing it, for both had taken part in a
novel trick, and it had been successfully performed.

Joe had taken his place in a chair on the stage, and, after having been
covered by a black cloth by the professor, had, when the cloth was
removed a moment later, totally disappeared. Then he was seen walking
down the aisle of the theatre, coming in from the lobby.

There was much wonder as to how the trick was it done, especially since
the chair had been placed over a sheet of paper on the stage, and,
before and after the trick, the professor had exhibited the sheet--the
front page of a local paper--apparently unbroken. (This trick is
explained in detail in the first volume of this series, entitled, "Joe
Strong, the Boy Wizard.")

"The audience seems to be in good humor to-night," observed the
professor to Joe, as they bowed again. The two could carry on a
low-voiced conversation while "taking" their applause.

"Yes, I'm glad to see them that way," answered the youth. "It's not
much fun playing to a frosty house."

"I should say not! Well, Joe, get ready for your pigeon-omelet trick,
and I'll prepare the fire apparatus."

The professor, with a final bow, made an exit to one side of the stage,
which was fitted up with Oriental splendor. As he went off, and as Joe
Strong picked up some apparatus from a table near him, a disturbed look
came over the face of the boy wizard.

"I don't like that fire trick," he mused. "It's altogether too
uncertain. It's spectacular, and all that, and when it works right it
makes a big hit, but I don't like it. Well, I suppose he'll do it,
anyhow--or try to. I'll be on the lookout