The Saint Paul globe., 1904-10-23

I HE GATES OF CHANGE

have done So" said sydenham II re-
membered making a deposit Of the
papers-but the money, no, I had no,
recollection Of having seen or touched
it from the moment that Alden brought
1t back from the bank and laid it on
my desk.
Gentlemen. said Mr.. Sanford, II
am indebted to you for much more
than the mere recovery of the money.
But we viii speak of that again.
Where Can ] put you down? Mr.. Sy.-
deniam 4 shall carry off to my house;
want to have talk with him. .
But Indiinan declined to re enter the
coach. pleading some further business
Z down town. and, of course, / remained
with him. The carriage was about to
drive off when Indinan put up his
hand
How stupid of mel" he exclaimed.
had almost forgotten He took
from the pocket of his overcoa a ratll-
er bulky package and handed it to
young Mr.. Sydenham. They'll ex-
plain Themselves, he, said, smiling.
The coach rolled away
The missing letters from ". S.,
said Indiman. in answer to my. look of
inquiry. An average Of two day,
and all addressed to him at the Utinam.
Well, what was the poor girl to do?
The young fool had changed his lodg-.
ings and obliterated every possible
trace of his whereabouts: All Miss
Sanford had to go on was the bare
intimatlon that he could be addressed
at the Utinam club. She might as we'll
5 have posted her communications in
the North river
81 don't follow YOU,
Two days ago put dummy letter
addressed to Sydenhan in his private
lock box at the Utinarn. Il had prom
ised, you know, to send him on his mail
if he would keep away from the club,
and accordingly had the key of the
letter box in my possession. Ten min
utes later went again to the box and
1t was empty-that Is, you could see
distinctly from one end OF the box to
the other. and it was absolutely bare"
"A duplicate key, Of course.
mot at all. 1t Is only a stupid per-
Son who descends to crime Except as
a last resort
We'll, then?"
did you ever attend any of the ex-
hibitions at the old Egyptian hall?
One of the favorite Illusions was the
trick cabinet in which the performer
seated himself in full view of the spec
tators The doors would be closed for
an instant, and then, when reopened.
the man had disappeared. The full in
terror of the cabinet was plainly yisi-
ble it stood on legs, which precluded
the idea of a trap door, and it was in~
centestably shown that egress from
the back, top, or sides was impossible.
Yet the performer was gomez?
sT said that the cabinet appeared to
be empty-quite another thing.
s'Go on"
at was a simple arrangement OF
plate glass mirrors fitting closely at the
sides and backed by the distinctive
pattern of wall paper with which the
rest of the cabinet was covered. I'M
mediately that the doors were closed,
the performer drew these false sides
outward, so that they met the center
post of the doors at an acute angle.
The true side walls thereby exposed,
and, of course, they We're papered to
correspond with the rest of the in
terror. Their reflection was doubled in
the mirrors, making it appear to the
observer that the whole cabinet was
open to his vision. The truth was that
he saw only half of it, the performer
being concealed behind the mirrors.
The only possible point at which the
illusion could be detected was the angle
where the mirrors Joined, and this
was masked by the center post at
which the double doors met. To con-
{ clude the trick, the doors were again
closed. the performer swung the mir
rors back into place, and, presto! he
was back in the cabinet, smiling gen.
ially at the gaping crowd.
"Then you think
Il know. Lock box No. SO was con-
structed on the same principle in min
iature, the letter slit being placed IN
such position that anything deposited
in the box fell behind the mirrors, the
whole interior remaining apparently
visible through the glass front, and
presumably empty. The owner of the
box would naturally glance into it be-
fore actually using his pass key OBJ
viously, it were waste Of time to go
through the form of opening an empty
box, and so poor Sydenham never got
any of the letters that were daily de-
posted there for the receptacle is
large one, and the Secret place benlnd
the mirrors was almost full. The ac-
ton of unlocking the box operated