Free Harry Houdini Mysteries by Daniel Stashower Page B

that his nose wrinkled a bit as he accepted Harry’s top hat.
    “Your name is Brunson, is it not?” Harry asked as the butler led us toward a reception room.
    “It is, sir.”
    “Would you ask Mr. Kenneth Clairmont to join us for a moment before we go through to meet the others? I should like a private word with him.”
    “Of course, sir.” Brunson withdrew, leaving us alone in the entry hall.
    “What’s this about, Harry?” I asked. “I don’t want to keep Mrs. Clairmont waiting.”
    “Just a minor precaution, Dash. I wish to ensure the success of our examination of Mr. Craig.”
    “Houdini!” called Kenneth Clairmont, strolling through from the reception room. “Good of you to come! Nice to see you again, too, Hardeen!”
    Harry put a finger to his lips. “Quiet! Do not use my name too freely!”
    “Pardon?”
    Harry stepped closer to Clairmont and grasped his elbow. “Tell me, have you mentioned our names to Lucius Craig? Have you told him that you have invited a pair of professional magicians to observe his actions this evening?”
    “Why, no. You specifically told me not to do so. I’ve only said that a pair of school friends would be joining us.”
    “Excellent! Then it is not too late!”
    “Too late? Too late for what?”
    By way of an answer, Harry reached into his coat pocket and produced a monocle and a false moustache. “I must conceal my true identity from Mr. Craig at all costs,” Harry explained, fixing the monocle over his right eye. “If he should learn that the Great Houdini is among the sitters this evening, he will be on guard. Indeed, he might even refuse to proceed!”
    “Uh, Harry,” I said, “I’m not sure this is entirely necessary.”
    “We cannot be too careful,” he insisted, fixing a luxuriant black moustache onto his upper lip. “It is our best chance of exposing Mr. Craig’s trickery. You must not use my name during the evening. You may refer to me as Dr. Weiss.”
    Clairmont watched with raised eyebrows as my brother straightened his moustache. “You’re quite certain about this, Houdini?”
    “Harry, is that Uncle Herman’s monocle?”
    “Don’t worry, Dash, I’ve brought a disguise for you, too! Here is a false nose!”
    “Harry, I don’t want to wear a false nose.”
    “But it has a wart!”
    “Be that as it may, I’m not going to wear it. The whole idea is absolute foolishness.”
    Harry gazed at the false nose wistfully, then put it back into his pocket. “Very well,” he said. “It is not essential to my plan for you to be incognito as well. Your fame is not quite so transcendent as mine. I merely thought—”
    “Gentlemen?” Brunson, the butler, had reappeared at the doors to the reception room. “If you’ll pardon me, Mrs. Clairmont wondered what had become of you.” The butler’s eyes came to rest upon my brother’s upper lip, which had been clean-shaven not five minutes earlier. If the sudden sprouting of a handlebar moustache struck him as odd, he gave no outward sign.
    “Of course, Brunson,” said Kenneth, glancing at Harry with an uncertain expression. “We’re just coming now.” Squaring his shoulders, he led us from the room.
    We were shown through to a large and brightly appointed reception room, where a woman whom I took to be Mrs. Clairmont stood waiting to greet us. Behind her was an imposing oil portrait of a grim-faced man who could only have been her late husband.
    “Mother,” Kenneth said, “here are the two friends Imentioned. This is Dash Hardeen, and this, uh, this is Dr. Weiss.”
    “It is so good of you to agree to fill out our little circle,” said Mrs. Clairmont, greeting us with genuine warmth. “When Kenneth said that Mr. Biggs would not be joining us this evening, I was afraid that we would not have a sufficient number of sitters. I am delighted you were able to step in, and no doubt Brunson is relieved to have been freed of the obligation to fill the extra chair. I do hope that our demonstration