human
But now comes the fun, Winslow. I can't tell you _how_ my rope trick is done. I've got a little addition to it that makes it a regular sensation. It don't hurt me a particle, and allows the strongest men to pull away with all their might.
gpt
I'd give a thousand dollars for it, Evalena,
human
No good; no good for you, replied Miss Gray, critically looking over Mrs. Winslow's splendid physical completeness.
gpt
Fact is, Winslow, you aren't built exactly right for that kind of work. There's too much of you to do the rope trick with eminent success. I played Daddy as my brother, and myself for an innocent, so neatly that Perkins honestly thought he had made a wonderful conquest. He believed it all, for he was one of those honest fools--in fact, came near being too honest for me.
human
Why, how?
gpt
Well, he installed me as his mistress in grand style; but, of course, I insisted in giving seances and compelled public recognition through _his_ public recognition of my 'wonderful spirit-power.' The man was so infatuated that he bored me terribly with his visits. Why, I could hardly get time to attend to business. You know we always have a stock of ropes on hand in the seance-rooms, so that when any one objects to the one I ordinarily use, there are always other ropes at hand that I _can_ use. One night some fellow broke my best rope, and the next day I was carelessly practising with another with my door unsecured. Perkins had been down to Brighton for a week or two, and of course had to rush over to see me the minute he got in London--to give me a 'happy surprise,' I suppose. There I sat when he suddenly bolted into the room and saw the thinness of the whole thing in an instant.
human
What did he see?
gpt
You _are_ shrewd, Winslow, but you can't catch me that way; no, no, no! But he did see the whole trick as dear as a June day. Do you think I fainted?
human
Not much,
gpt
No; but _he_ nearly did. He reeled and staggered as though he had been struck by a sledge-hammer, and I saw in his face a determination to rush from the room and denounce me to all London. It was make or break with me then, Winslow, and with a bound I got to the door, turned the key, and sent it crashing through a five-pound pane of glass into the street below. Then I just whipped out this little derringer, she continued, producing a beautifully mounted, though diminutive weapon,
human
My heart did go thumping to see the man used up so; but I had to be rough, and said: 'Yes, I _am_ a devil, Perkins, and you must pledge me your word--yes, you must take a solemn oath before that God you have called upon, that you will never expose me, or I will blow your brains out!'
gpt
Splendid! splendid! ejaculated Mrs. Winslow.
human
Did he do it?
gpt
I should say he did do it! He got down on his knees and begged like a baby. And do you know, my blood was up so then, and I so despised him for his want of manliness, that I came within an ace of killing the infernal booby!
human
He deserved it!
gpt
After I had him nearly scared to death, resumed the marvellous medium,
human
I began reasoning with him, and, by being excruciatingly tender, convinced him that by exposing me he would gain nothing, but would lose in everything that a man of spirit prided in--honor, social reputation, and business standing, and drew a lively picture of his disgrace at the clubs and in social circles, and of the cartoons which would certainly appear in _Punch_ and the other comic papers; and the result was that I held on to his affection and his purse-strings by compelling him to feel that my detaining him in the room and threatening to shoot him was the only thing which prevented him from rashly ruining both. Altogether, Winslow, I got over two thousand pounds out of him. He wasn't deprived of a first-class mistress while I remained in London, and--and we are so good friends now that every little while I get a splendid remittance from him; and if I ever should want to go back, I could have the very best in all England!
gpt
Well, well, well!
human
Who is Mlle. Willie Leveraux?
gpt
She is a sister of Ed. Johnson, the 'bank-burster,' and a keen girl, too,
human
How did you happen to get hold of her?
gpt
Well, you see, Ed. Johnson, Mose Wogle, Frank Dean--'Dago Frank'--and Dave Cummings, with Chief of Police McGillan and Detective Royal, of Jersey City, put up a job on the First National Bank there. McGillan was to keep everybody away from them; and he, or Royal, was to always remain at headquarters to let the boys off if they got nabbed. They played it as plaster-workers--Italians, you know--and began working from a room over the bank down through the ceiling into the vault; but an old scrub-woman about the place got suspicious, and had them arrested one day when both McGillan and Royal happened to be in Philadelphia. They had promised the boys help to break jail, but they failed everywhere; and Willie, thinking to get Johnson off, went to the bank officers and told them the whole story. They promised to help her brother, but said her evidence would have to be corroborated. So she sent for McGillan and Royal, got them into her rooms, then over on Thirty-seventh street, and had a Hoboken official in a closet, with a stenographer, who took all the conversation, which amounted to a complete confession of their complicity. It never did any good, though. McGillan and Royal got the most swearing done, and got clear; while Johnson and the rest of the boys got fifteen years' solitary confinement in the New Jersey penitentiary. It almost broke Willie down; but she is splendid help now.
human
Marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium