"Certainly it is difficult to believe," said Marcus, "but surely I must believe it, it happened."

"Nonsense," I said.

"Did you not see what I saw?" he asked.

"I suppose that in one sense I saw what you saw," I said, "but in another sense I think it would be fair to say that I didn't. At the very least, we surely interpreted what we saw very differently."

"I know what I saw," said Marcus.

"You know what you think you saw," I said.

"There could be no tricks," said Marcus, angrily. "Not this time. Do not think I am naA?ve! I have heard of such things as trapdoors and secret panels! I have even heard of illusions done with mirrors! But those are not done by true magic. They are only tricks. I might even be able to do them. But this was different. Here, obviously, there could have been only true magic."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"I do not know that there is false magic, or only apparent magic, and false magicians, or only apparent magicians, but this was different."

"Why?" I asked.

"If there are so many false magicians," said Marcus, "then there must be at least one true magician."

"Have you reflected upon the logic of that?" I asked.

"Not carefully," he said.

"It might be well to do so," I said.

"Perhaps," he said, irritatedly.

"From the fact that most larls eat meat it does not follow that some larls do not," I said. "Rather, if one were to hazard an inference in such a matter, it would seem rational to suppose that they all eat meat."

"And from the fact that most magicians may not do real magic one should not infer that therefore some do?"

"That is it," I said.

"But some might!" he said, triumphantly.

"Perhaps," I said.

"I grant you the logic of matter," he said, "but in this case I must be granted the fact of the matter."

"What fact?" I asked.

"That there is real magic!"

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because tonight," he said, "we witnessed not tricks, but genuine magic."

"What makes you think that?" I asked."

"You saw the slave in the palanquin," he said. "It was moved about, it was lifted up in the air! Do you think the girl could have slipped through a trapdoor or something? There is no way that could have happened. Similarly the palanquin was moved about. Accordingly there could have been no mirrors."

"There could have been some," I said.

"Do you think it was done with mirrors?" he asked.

"No," I said. "It was not done with mirrors."

"It was done by magic," he said.

"Not by what you seem to mean by "real magic'." I said, "whatever that might be."

"How then do you think it was done?" he asked, angrily.

"There were two illusions," I said, "the first in which the girl disappeared from the palanquin, and the second in which she reappeared in the trunk."

"Or two wonders," said Marcus, "the one of the palanquin and the other of the trunk."

"Very well," I said. "You noted, of course, that the palanquin was roofed, or canopied, and that the roof or canopy was supported by four poles."

"Of course," he said, warily.

"Those poles are hollow," I said, "and within them there are cords and weights."

"Continue," said he.

"The cords," I said, "are attached at one end to the weights within the poles and, at the other end, to the corners of a flat pallet at the bottom of palanquin, on which the girl reclines. When the curtains of the palanquin are drawn, as they were, you remember, the weights are disengaged by the bearers. These weights, the four of them, collectively, are much heavier than the pallet and the girl, whom, you will remember was slim and light. As the weights descend within the poles the cords move and draw the pallet up under the canopy."

"The girl was then being held at the top, concealed by the canopy?"

"Precisely," I said.

"I did not think of her as going up," said Marcus.

"Nor would most folks," I said. "After all, people do not normally fly upwards. Presumably most folks would think, if at all about these matters, in terms of a false bottom, or back, or something, but, as you saw, such considerations would have been immediately dismissed, as the construction of the palanquin made them impractical, for example, its openness, and its bottom being too shallow to effect any efficacious concealment for the girl."

"It was not magic?" he said.

"Once the girl is offstage," I said, "there is no difficulty in changing her clothes and getting her in sirik."

"The trunk was real magic," he said, "as we saw it carried on, kept off the floor, and opened, and shown empty!"

"In the case of the trunk," I said, "after it was on the trestles, the back was lowered first, and then the sides and front."

"Yes," he said, "that is correct."

"When it was closed, however," I said, "it was the front which was first lifted and put in place, and then the sides, and then the back."

"Yes," he said.

"In short," I said, "in the opening of the trunk, the back was lowered first, and in its closing, it was lifted last."

"True," said Marcus.

"You remember?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"The interior of the back was thus not seen by the audience in the beginning," I said, "because it was either concealed by the front panel as the trunk was carried onto the stage or was facing the back of the stage when it was hanging down in back. similarly, later, the interior of the back was not seen by the audience because it was either facing away from them, when it hung down in back, or was concealed by the front panel and sides, which were first lifted, to keep it concealed."

"The slave was then carried onto the stage in the closed trunk, her body fastened somehow to the inside of the back panel."

"In a sling of sorts," I said.

"She was then hanging down, fastened to the side of the back panel away from the audience, when the trunk was opened?"

"Yes," I said.

"And was returned to the interior of the trunk with the shielded lifting of the back panel?"

"Yes," I said. "And once within the trunk, it then closed again, she could, of course, her hands being free enough in the sirik to accomplish this, undo the straps, and conceal them in the flooring of the trunk, in a slot prepared for the purpose."

"Then it was not magic?" he said.

"That depends on what you mean by "magic'," I said.

"You know what I mean," he said, somewhat disagreeably.

"No," I said. "It was not magic."

"But it could have been magic," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Even those these wonders could have been accomplished so easily by mere trickery, that does not prove they were!"

"No," I said. "I suppose not."

"The same effect might have quite different causes," he said, "for example, in these cases, having been achieved either by mere charlatanry or by genuine magic."

"I have seen the equipment," I said. I had, in one of the wagons of the ponderous fellow several months ago. I had even diddled about with it, for my own amusement.

"But that does not prove it was used!" said Marcus.

"I suppose not," I said. "I suppose that these effects, so easily wrought by a skilled fellow, who knows how to bring them about, might actually, in these cases, have been produced not by familiar trickery but by the application of uncanny and marvelous powers."

"Certainly," said Marcus.

"Would you believe the fellow if he showed you how he did it?" I asked.

"He might show me how it could be done, but not how he actually did it," said Marcus. "He might lie to me, to conceal from me his possession of mysterious powers."

"Well," I said, "I never thought about that." I never had. "I guess you're right," I said.

Marcus walked on beside me for a way. Then suddenly he burst out, angrily, "The charlatan, the fraud!"