Chapter 5

After spending a little time in India studying the Fakirs, I discerned their tricks, and not everything they did however was a trick. Some were tricks of the mind, and I paid close attention, learning every thing I could. Of course I was not unobserved, as these fellows had a knack for being aware of themselves and their surrounds as well. However, they couldn’t complain about observing me observing them, so we were all just aware of each other is all.

It was the failed pick-pocket attempts that inspired my next interest. (I just made sure I got a good look at the face of anyone who tried, and made sure I met their eye anytime they got within twenty feet of me thereafter. Soon they were fleeing at my approach.)

I became interested in locks and cuffs, and in the course of inventing better ones, I naturally also learned the weaknesses of the common variety. It is only to be expected that a lock-smith understands locks well enough to un-do them at need?

I worked up a little magician’s bit to entertain or divert at need and I developed a new hobby of tiny tricks and devices, to aid sleight of hand, which of course was not difficult for me. I was with little practice, a prestidigitator of acumen, and I also studied the wiles of the spiritualists as well. I was careful not to prey on the credulity of those who held uncanny beliefs, in respect for Bull’s memory, but I was well aware of the shills and slow cons.

My brand of ‘magic’ was startling drollery, endless colored kerchieves, sudden bouquets, and close up coin tricks with my ‘magic penny’. I could amaze in games of ‘find the hidden’. I also could be convinced to juggle for short durations at infrequent intervals. If I used my entrancing device, I could put on a little hypnotist show. I was very cautious about making commands or suggestions to some one under it’s effect.

I had to be very cautious also about what ‘magic’ I allowed the Cuban crew to see, and carefully show them the trick and device of it. They were a superstitious bunch as a whole, and I was an odd enough duck already, without any extra spooky stuff. They were already a bit nervous about the blank minds they had experienced while I was experimenting with the frequency doubling, but I had suggested to everyone before they had come to themselves that all was well.

The engines had long since been re-tuned to top efficiency, and all ran smoothly. With Carlton guarding my back, and I watching over him in turn, we ventured into some of the notorious gambling towns of Asia, where I found some games not pure chance, where my read of the other players gave me an advantage. I also had to read the bosses so as not to cross the line into greedy, and just seem to be ‘that lucky’, so it wasn’t as boring as you might imagine as soon as you might think. Carlton was awestruck at my finesse.

I eventually tired of this sport, but while returning to ‘The Duchess’, four robbers armed with knives attempted to surprise us. I had signaled Carlton in the hand code we had developed in our anti-pirate game, and he was alert enough to notice and canny enough to not give it away. I indicated four, and set his target to the one away from the three as the back-stop. I had played this game as a back alley Fauntleroy, except never against knives, just fence pickets, including the occasional nail. I got my three tangled up, and danced in picking them off one by one, not playing by the Marquess of Queensberry’s rules. Elbows, knees and boots, serve them right, pulling knives like thugs. Carlton had his down for the count as well. I searched them, finding them all wearing an occult emblem about their neck.

Carlton’s man came to first, and I showed my hand to Carlton more than I intended when I used my entrancer, which wasn’t much bigger than a lady’s flask, and had hidden within two tiny tuning forks which were tuned off from each other by just so much. However, Carlton had been trustworthy, and I trusted him with many of my secrets. I doubted he would betray my trust. Not that I intended to tell him about the limiter switch, or show him the inaudible tuning forks within my mysterious flask.

I twisted the actuator causing them to vibrate and held it against the head of the struggling man, who relaxed in Carlton’s grip. He gave me a look, but it wasn’t serious, as I had already promised him I wouldn’t mess with his head anymore. Not that I had, much.