The Search for the Red Dragon - James A. Owen [54]
“There is a wardrobe in London,” Aven went on, “one of two that originally belonged to Harry Houdini. He claimed to have built them himself, but Jules always suspected that he stole the principles behind them from the inventor Nikola Tesla.”
“You mean ‘borrowed,’” said Bert mildly.
Aven shook her head. “Stole. Tesla tried to have him arrested for stealing his papers, but Houdini ate the papers in question, then broke himself out of jail to ask the magistrate to release him for lack of evidence.”
“I see. Forget I asked. You were saying?” said Bert.
“Houdini built two wardrobes for use in his stage act,” said Aven. “He or a member of the audience could enter one, then instantly appear in the other, which was placed at the opposite edge of the stage. He pushed the limits further with every performance, moving one wardrobe to the balcony, then the lobby, and once even to the street outside, where a surprised volunteer emerged and was nearly run over by a carriage. Shortly after that, the trick was discontinued, and he never performed it in public again.”
“The trick had lost its appeal?” Jack asked.
“Hardly,” said Aven. “It was the biggest draw of the day. But he found a more useful application for it. Because of his skill as an escape artist, he was approached by both Scotland Yard and the United States Secret Service to work for them as an intelligence-gathering agent. His touring show was his cover, and in the rare event he did get caught by a foreign agency, he could simply free himself and walk away.”
“Handy,” said Jack. “Where do the wardrobes come in?”
“Houdini realized that the ability to instantly transport himself from any location would make him unsurpassable as a spy,” said Aven. “So he would often arrange to have one of the wardrobes delivered to government offices, or royal residences, on the pretext that the delivery was a mistake. It was always returned to him, but in the meantime he could count on having an open door to wherever it was.”
“And the other wardrobe could be kept in his dressing room for a convenient escape,” said Jack. “Impressive.”
“Exactly,” said Aven. “There were the occasional sightings of him in places he wasn’t supposed to be—but how can you bring charges against a man who was seen onstage only minutes later, by an audience of five hundred, in a theater a thousand miles away?”
“That explains something else,” mused Bert. “Houdini and Conan Doyle used the wardrobes to avoid Samaranth, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” Aven said, suppressing a giggle. “They did. They were crisscrossing Europe trying to stay out of sight while you tried to talk sense into Samaranth. Giving up the wardrobes was part of the offer they made in exchange for his not roasting them whole.”
“And he gave the wardrobes to the next Caretaker, who was Jamie,” continued Jack.
“Right,” said Aven. “That was around the time he first met Peter, who had learned a way to cross the Frontier on his own, using the wings Daedalus the Younger made for all the Lost Boys. Somehow they were able to place one of the wardrobes in the Nether Land, and they kept the other at Jamie’s house, so that either or both of them could cross at will. I’ve used it more than once myself to get to the Nether Land.”
“After a visit with Jamie in London, I’d assume?” asked Bert.
Aven blushed, and tried to frown, but couldn’t quite manage it. “Yes. That too.”
“That’s why it was a surprise to you that the Nether Land might be in the Underneath,” said Jack. “You’ve never traveled there any other way, have you?”
Aven shook her head. “It was one of Peter’s rules. He wouldn’t permit outsiders to know the way there—and I was an outsider. I haven’t been back there in years, but I think Jamie’s wardrobe is still in London.”
“It is! I saw it myself. This is grand news.” Jack exclaimed, clapping his hands. “If we can get back to London, we can simply enter the wardrobe at Barrie’s town house and be sent right to the