Chapter 4

The mayor of Atlantic City was there and a host of other city officials. As Phil predicted, Houdini drew senators, congressmen and other of the city's leading lights because it was a well- publicized black tie affair. There was barely room for the press, the important and the near important in the small auditorium and flash-powder trays burst in dazzling light as endless pictures were taken.

A small orchestra played on the stage and then Phil put on his regular water show for the blue ribbon audience. It was well- received as the crowd was in a holiday mood, waiting for Houdini's appearance.

Houdini appeared in a dress suit while his attendants brought forth a coffin-like metal box similar to the one he used in his New York hotel immersion. The great artist was small in stature and stocky with twinkling, blue-gray eyes and, not at the age of 52, had a receding hairline over an extra wide brow.

"He always manages to look rumpled," Bess his wife explained to Phil as they watched from the wings. "Someday I hope they invent a wrinkleproof suit for men."

"Ah, but when he gives the crowd that dazzling smile and opens his mouth he's listened to like a king," Phil replied.

Houdini suddenly jerked at his sleeves and his arms were bare from the elbows down. It was the old magicians' challenge of "Nothing up my sleeves." Then he did card tricks, enjoying himself as much as the audience enjoyed him.

"We work in such big theatres," whispered Bess, "that he's really excited tonight to have this intimate place where he can do pint-sized tricks that everybody can see." Then Houdini did some handcuff escapes and was finally sealed in his box and lowered by ropes to the bottom of the aquarium tank. The orchestra played, the audience buzzed expectantly. But by the time an hour had passed, the room was silent and electric with tension. What human could possibly survive without air for so long under water. Was Houdini now a lifeless corpse at the bottom of the great link?

At an hour and fifteen minutes people called for the box to be lifted, sure Houdini was dead or near death. A sense of genuine catastrophe filled the auditorium. But Phil noted that Bess Houdini merely smiled.

A bell rang at the mark of an hour and twenty minutes, the box was lifted and opened and Houdini emerged, weak and pale but smiling. He received a thunderous ovation. There had been no tricks involved, he had lived on the natural air sealed in with him for all that time.

For the next hour the place was a milling crowd of well- wishers, everybody wanting to meet Houdini in this intimate place. Usually in vast theatres there was no chance to meet him after a show.

"We're eternally grateful," Phil told Houdini when at last the crowd began to thin and the magician, his wife and entourage were about to leave. "It seems like a lot of trouble to put you to for such a small audience."

"Listen to me, Phil," said Houdini. "You did me a favor. When I beat that Egyptian's time on his immersion, some people said I was lucky. They said I couldn't do it again. Tonight the papers were here and the story goes out on the wires across the country. So, quickly and easily I nailed it down that I can beat his one hour time any day I want. That frees me to go on to my big fall show and develop some new things. I won't be challenged on that one again. Besides, Bess and I can enjoy a couple of days off at the beach."

"For which I'm grateful," said Bess Houdini, proudly taking her husband's arm. Phil noted that Houdini seemed well recovered from his ordeal of the evening.

Before the magician left he gave Phil some advice.

"I'll leave my metal box. You can have it for a display. Your business should be good for a couple of weeks in the aftermath of the publicity. Charge 'em five bucks a head. After that I'd fold the show. Your place here is really too small. I struggled for years as a near failure in dime museums in the old days and nothing can break your heart like small time show business."

"Oh, I've got a big one coming up," smiled Phil.

"Good boy. Once you get off the ground, keep flying!" Houdini and his group were gone with friendly waves. Phil stood there feeling great. There was no limit to the man's talents; in addition to everything else he was a pioneer aviator, which is why he left Phil with that aeronautical advice.

Vic Singleton was beside himself with delight. "Tonight was big time for me!" he crooned. "Tonight was the big night of my life. I looked the mayor and the police chief in the eye and they looked right back and smiled. We even shook hands. You were right, boy. It was time for me to leave the rackets. That Houdini of yours was really something. I'm going to have those pictures framed in gold!"

"There's more to come," said Phil. But he was too astute to introduce his new idea while Singleton floated on the euphoria of tonight's success.

Everyone was so hopped up by the excitement that they gave a midnight show, charging $5 a head this time and filled the place. Flair was in good spirits and Texas Bunny was in good voice. Even George, the cynic, seemed mellow.

"In show business you get one good night a year," he said. "Tonight was our night for this year."

Two days later Phil saw Maddy for the first time.

She was half-naked in that first sight of her because Vic Singleton had stripped her of her nurse's whites to her waist and feasted on one of Maddy's round, ivory breasts. Maddy Metcalf had the clearest, finest textured skin Phil had ever seen on a woman. In addition she had lustrous black hair that fell well below her shoulders. Not for her the short-haired flapper style that the hot mamas of the day favored!

Phil had started to leave the bath to go into the master bedroom of the yacht when the other two entered the room and began their love play. They didn't see or hear him because Vic's sexual attack on the girl absorbed them both.

"Oh, Vic, should we?" moaned Maddy. She gasped and rolled her head in sensuous pleasure as the older man assaulted first one and then the other of her big, pink nipples.

"We should!" laughed Vic.

Phil froze in shock, unable to believe his eyes. He'd come three thousand miles to find his former girl and to give her fame in a new career. A thousand nights since she'd left him in 1924 he'd dreamed wistfully of holding that firm yet feminine body in his arms and caressing that creamy, delectable skin, pillaging her rich charms once more. Her brilliant green eyes would go dazed with passion; her nipples of those high, full breasts would harden and her tight little cunt would gleam with desire juices.

Like most endurance swimmers, like Flair, Maddy had a voluptuous and sturdy body. She had strong flanks and buttocks, shapely arms, a graceful back and powerful, tapered thighs and calves. Her flesh was tight on her frame, and that clear ivory skin made her a lover's dream.

Only it was Phil's millionaire patron who held the girl in his arms, fixed his mouth to those nipples and kissed those well- shaped lips. Maddy moaned in desire.

As Phil watched, thunderstruck, Singleton peeled off the rest of Maddy's clothes and there she stood naked, exactly as Phil remembered her. Worse, she stood in the exact spot where Flair Singleton had jacked Phil off in her virgin lust, a little over two weeks ago.

Phil's cock began to thicken even as he stared in horror at the scene before him.

Vic who wore only a robe pulled the nude girl to the bed.

"Vic, is it safe?" asked Maddy.

"Sure, baby, they're all on shore with my water show, your uncle George, your ex-boyfriend, Texas Bunny and Flair. I gave orders for nobody to come aboard tonight. The crew and servants are all below."

"How is Phil?"

"That kid is the greatest. Did I tell you about Houdini?"

"I read the story and saw the pictures in the New York papers."

"Listen, wait till you hear the rest of it. I'm sponsoring an endurance swim way out on Catalina Island in California near Hollywood. Since Gertrude Ederle got her ticker tape parade in New York and became a national heroine, endurance swimmers are hot news."

"I saw her. They say she'll star at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial and get $10,000 for it."

"And you can be the next Gertrude Ederle, baby. Listen."

Vic took off his robe, revealing his own nudity. An average- sized cock, very hard, jutted up from a nest of white-streaked pubic hair. The sight of it sickened Phil as did the realization that the older guy had a pretty good body. Phil guessed that bootlegging had kept old Singleton physically active. Maddy took hold of that rival cock and jogged it, while Vic rubbed his hand into the glossy black hair around Maddy's cunt and then fingered into her. They both moaned and made pleasure sounds of sexual arousal. "Mmmmmmm. Ah, ah."

Phil's cock was hard, and so were his fists. He burned to leap into that bedroom and kill Vic, but he was still too stunned to act.

"Your clever boyfriend, Phil - " Vic resumed.

"Ex-boyfriend," Maddy interjected.

"... has got it all fixed up," said Vic. "He has an agreement with the owners of Catalina Island to put on an all- invitational swim. Since I'm putting up the dough, it'll be the Victor Singleton Invitational Catalina Swim. It's open to everybody, amateur and professional. Dubs and pros. I'll get my name in every newspaper in the world because nobody's swum that channel yet, not on record. How do you like that?"

"It sounds great." Maddy leaned up on her elbow to look down at Vic. "I'm glad Phil's finally getting a break."

"Now comes the best part. You, Maddy Metcalf, will win that swim, Phil thinks. He wants to train you for the next two or three months. We put on the big swim next January. At that time of the year the island is dead. This brings in a thousand tourists which the owners like, which is why they've agreed to it."

"Oh, Vic!" breathed Maddy.

"We'll both be world famous!" cried Singleton. Me as sponsor, you as swim winner. Then we can get married!"

"Oh, Vic!" cried Maddy.

It was as if someone had hit Phil with an axe. Married! It had gone that far!

"We are going to get married, aren't we?" asked Vic.

"I told you I would, lover," said Maddy. "First you had to give up bootlegging."

The fact that Vic wanted to marry Maddy and that she would accept him stopped Phil cold. Now he could not invade that bedroom to try to reclaim Maddy. He could only listen in agony. And watch... as Maddy leaned over Vic's body and sucked his prick into her mouth.

"Ohhhh, lover!" crooned Vic happily.

"Does Phil know about us?" asked Maddy, jacking off the man in the soft gleam of her saliva. "Does Flair?"

"Uh, so good! Flair suspects, but Phil doesn't know. I told him you nursed my mother when the old lady won't let anybody near her but Old Lady Cosgrove. Nobody knows you're on my payroll but working in New York charity wards until I could convince you to marry me."

"I'm ready," said Maddy.

Phil felt his world shatter. Everything he'd done for Maddy would fall into Vic's arms. His project... Vic had the money for that, he didn't. Vic and Maddy would come out on top of the Catalina swim. Worse, he'd actually removed the last barrier to their marriage by pulling Vic out of the rackets. Before that Maddy wouldn't marry him. He? He was no better than a servant, like those two thugs Vic used to keep with him. Even worse than that, he could hardly be angry at Vic. He'd deflowered Vic's daughter in front of the older man's eyes, just about. He had shot off his gun in the mouth of Vic's mistress as the man walked in on it. He owed Singleton something for that and Vic got it back now by taking his woman!