A CHASE AND ITS RESULT.

The flight of Daniel Bambo and Hank Maul was so sudden that for the moment Neka and Longfellow Wadsworth sat motionless in the sleigh, hardly believing the evidence of their senses.

“Both of them!” cried the elocutionist.

“We must go after them!” ejaculated Neka, and catching up the reins, he made the horse turn back.

Down one block they went at top speed. Then Daniel Bambo and Hank Maul were seen to turn into a narrow side street.

Up to the corner dashed the sleigh, and as he made the turn the horse gave a sudden jerk.

Scrape! the sleigh swung around. It came hard up against a stone in the snow, and in a twinkle it went over.

Neka and Longfellow Wadsworth were flung headlong over one side. The boy landed head first in a huge snowbank, and the snow went down his collar and coat sleeves. Fortunately the horse ran but a few steps, and then came to a halt.

It was several seconds when Neka extricated himself from his decidedly unpleasant position. He gave a quick glance around.

Longfellow Wadsworth lay on his back several yards away. His eyes were closed, and there was an ugly cut on his forehead.

Much alarmed, Neka forgot all about the flying criminals, and thought only of his friend. He bent over the elocutionist.

“Wadsworth! Wadsworth!” he cried.

There was no response. Neka put down his ear and discovered that the elocutionist breathed, but only faintly.

The turnover had been witnessed by half-a-dozen people, and soon a crowd began to collect.

“Where is the nearest drug store?” asked Neka.

“Down on the next corner,” replied a man. “Shall we help carry him there?”

“If you please.”

Three men from the crowd sprang forward to assist, and the four picked Longfellow Wadsworth up and carried him off as tenderly as it was possible to do.

Luckily, a doctor was in attendance at the drug store, and Longfellow Wadsworth was turned over to his care. The examination lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, and during it the elocutionist regained consciousness. “There are no bones broken,” said the physician. “But the man has suffered a heavy shock, and must remain quiet for several days. I will patch up the wound in his forehead and then you had better have him removed to his home or a hospital in a coach.”

“I’ll have him taken to his hotel,” said Neka, and sent a boy off to hunt up a large and easy carriage.

Half an hour later found Neka and the elocutionist on the way to the hotel. A man was hired to drive behind with the sleigh, which, strange to say, had not been injured in the least.

Neka knew it would now be next to useless to continue the search for Daniel Bambo and Hank Maul. Those two rascals had had sufficient time and warning to keep well out of sight. The chances were that they would even leave Philadelphia.

But after he was certain Longfellow Wadsworth was comfortable, Neka took the sleigh again and continued the hunt. Several hours were spent without avail, and the boy sent the turnout back to Camden and went to the theatre to prepare for his evening’s appearance.

With Longfellow Wadsworth out of the list, the programme had to be altered somewhat, and to make up for the elocutionist’s absence, Neka introduced a new act of his own which he called the Lightning Stroke.

This trick is from the Arabian, and is performed at a certain feast called the Sal-Beno-Sal. Neka had learned of the trick through old Jerry Brown, but it had taken him a long while to master it.

At the proper time the stage was set to represent a scene on a mountain top. The stage grew dark, and a storm was seen to approach from far away. The dim lightning lit up the sky, the distant rumble of thunder was heard, and presently came the patter of rain.

In the midst of this Neka entered, clad in the garb of a traveler over the mountains. He wore a long cloak and top boots and a broad-brimmed rubber hat to shelter him from the rain.

The storm increased in violence, and the lightning came closer and closer.

As if to view his surroundings, Neka climbed to the top of a great rock set in the center of the stage. Scarcely had he stood upright when a vivid flash of lightning seemed to leap from the black clouds directly overhead and to strike him full in the breast.

After that the lightning played upon him for several minutes, striking him on the head, in the back, on the arms, and even in the feet and legs. At one time he appeared to be fairly covered with electricity.

As bolt after bolt struck him his appearance began to change. His raven black hair gave way first to gray, and then to white; the mustache he had worn disappeared, and his face, from looking youthful, took on gradually the haggard appearance of extreme old age. At last his hat blew off and whisked out of sight. His long cloak followed, and his top boots dropped away into the brush below in the rocks. One article of clothing followed another until finally when there came a brilliant burst of lightning lasting several seconds there was revealed to the astounded audience nothing but what looked like the marble statue of an aged man standing on the rock, with arms uplifted to the grandeur of the storm. Then the curtain descended swiftly.

This act created a tremendous lot of discussion, it was so novel and mystifying. For a long time not even rival magicians discovered the means used in producing the trick, and not only Philadelphia, but many other cities went wild over the act. To let the reader into the secret for once we would state that the illusion is produced by pictures thrown upon a curtain or wall of steam. What appears to be rain is really steam sent up from below the stage through a long pipe filled with holes. As the steam comes up in a wall across the stage, pictures are cast upon it from in front overhead, at a spot just behind the proscenium arch, out of sight of the audience. Of course, Neka had to give aid to the illusion by several rapid changes in position on the stage rock, but that was all. The hat and cloak were fastened to fine but strong threads, and at the proper moment were jerked away by other persons overhead in the flies. The lightning behind Neka was stage lightning, but that which appeared to strike him was only lightning pictured on the curtain of steam directly in front of him.