The Prestige

record about my magical contemporaries. I duly launched into an appreciative summary of the best of my colleagues.

'You have not mentioned Le Professeur,' said my interlocuter, when I eventually paused. 'Do you not hold an opinion on his work?'

'I regret I have not been present at any of his performances,' I demurred.

'Then you must go to see his work!' ejaculated Mr Koenig. 'His is the best show in London!'

'Indeed.'

'I have seen his act several times,' the reporter went on. 'There is one trick he does, not every night for he says it exhausts him too much, but there is this one trick—'

'I have heard of it,' I said, affecting disdain. 'Something to do with two cabinets.'

'That's the one, Mr Danton! He vanishes and reappears in a trice! No one knows how he does it.'

'No one, that is, except his fellow magicians,' I corrected him. 'He is using standard magical procedures.'

'Then you know how it is done?'

'Of course I know,' I said. 'But naturally you will not expect me to divulge the exact method—'

Here I confess I was torn. Over the last two weeks I have been thinking hard about Cutter's twins theory, and I had convinced myself that he is right. Here was my chance to reveal the secret. I had an eager listener, a journalist with access to one of the great newspapers of our city, a man whose curiosity was already provoked by the mystery of magic performance. I felt the lust for revenge that I normally suppressed, that I had told myself a score of times was a weakness to which I must never again succumb. Naturally, Koenig knew nothing of the bitterness between Borden and myself.

Sense did prevail once more. No magician gives away the secret of another.

At length I said, 'There are ways and means. An illusion is not what it seems. A great deal of practice and rehearsal—'

Whereat the youthful reporter practically leapt out of his seat.

'Sir, you believe he uses a twin double! Every magician in London thinks the same! I thought so too when I saw it the first time.'

'Yes, that is his method.' I was relieved to discover how straightforward he was being.

'Then, sir!' cried the young man. 'You are wrong like all the others, sir! There is no double. This is what is so amazing!'

'He has a twin brother,' I said. 'There is no other way.'

'It is not true. Alfred Borden has neither twin brother nor a double who can pass for him. I have personally investigated his life, and I know the truth. He works alone but for the female assistant seen on the stage with him, and a technical manager who builds his apparatus with him. In this he is no different from any other in your profession. You too—'

'I do have an ingйnieur ,' I confirmed readily. 'But tell me more. You interest me greatly. You are certain of this information?'

'I am.'

'Can you prove it to me?'

'As you know, sir,' Mr Koenig replied, 'it is not possible to prove that which does not exist. All I can say is that for the last few weeks I have been bringing journalistic methods to the investigation, and have not found a single jot of evidence to confirm what you assume.'

At this point he produced a thin sheaf of papers and showed them to me. They contained certain information about Mr Borden that I found instantly intriguing, and I begged the reporter to let me have them.

There followed something of a wrangle between our two professions. He maintained that as a journalist he could not impart the fruit of his researches to a third party. I countered that even if he were to discover the final, absolute truth about Borden, he would never be able to publish it while the subject remained alive.

On the other hand, I said, if I were to start my own investigations, then I might be able at some future time to guide him to a truly uncommon story.

The upshot of it was that Koenig agreed to let me take handwritten extracts from several of his notes, and these I scribbled down on the spot at his dictation. His conclusions were not conveyed to me, and to be candid I was not greatly interested in them. At the end I passed him five sovereigns.

As I finished, Mr Koenig said to me, 'May I ask what you are hoping to learn from this, sir?'

'I seek only to improve my own magical art,' I affirmed.

'I understand.' He stood up to leave, and took hold of his hat and stick. 'And when you have so improved , do you suppose you too will be able to perform Le Professeur's illusion?'

'I assure you, Mr Koenig,' I said with cold disdain, as I showed him to the door. 'I assure you that should the occasion arise I could take his bauble of a trick and make it mine this very night!'

Then he was gone.

Today I have not been working, and so I have written up this account of the meeting. All through it that final taunt of Koenig's has been in my thoughts. It is imperative that I learn the secret of Borden's illusion. I can think of no sweeter revenge than to outshine him with his own trick, outperform him, outdo him in every way.

And, courtesy of Mr Koenig, the facts I possess about Mr Borden will prove to be of immense value. First, though, I must check them.

9th December 1892

I have in fact so far done nothing about Borden. The American tour has been confirmed as definite, and Cutter and I are in the thick of preparations. I am to be travelling for more than two whole months, and to be separated from Julia and the children for such a length of time is almost unthinkable.

However, I cannot miss the tour. Setting aside the matter of the generous fees, I am probably the youngest magician from Britain or Europe to have been invited to follow in the steps of some of magic's greatest performers. The New World is the source and location of some of the finest magicians currently in performance, and it is a magnificent compliment to be invited to undertake this tour.

And Borden has not so far visited the USA!

10th December 1892

I had been looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home. No magic, no rehearsals, no travelling. I wanted to submerge myself in my family, and set everything else aside. But following a cancellation I have been offered a lucrative and irresistible two-week residency in Eastbourne, and it is such that I might take my entire household with me. My family shall spend Christmas at the Grand Hotel, overlooking the sea!

11th December 1892

A propitious discovery. Looking at a gazetteer this afternoon I could not help but notice that Eastbourne is just a few miles away from Hastings, and that the two towns are linked by a direct railway line. I think I shall spend a day or two in Hastings. I hear it is a pleasant place to visit.

17th January 1893

All of a sudden my life is overshadowed by the immensity of the journey before me. In two days’ time I leave for Southampton, and embark for New York City, thence to Boston and beyond, into the American heartland. The last week has been a nightmare of packing and preparations, and arranging for the apparatus I need with me to be dismantled, crated, then despatched ahead of me. Nothing can be left to chance, for without my equipment I have no stage show. A lot depends on this transatlantic adventure!

But now I have a day or two of leisure in which to prepare myself mentally and relax at home for a while. Today I have visited London Zoo with Julia and the children, already feeling a sense of loss because I know I shall be away from them for so long. The children are asleep, Julia is reading in her sitting room, and in the calm of this dark January evening, quietly in my study, I may at last record, thanks to the industrious Mr Koenig, the fruits of my enquiries about Mr Alfred Borden.

The following are facts I have personally verified.

He was born on 8th May 1856, in the Royal Sussex Infirmary in Bohemia Road, Hastings. Three days after his birth he and his mother, Betsy Mary Borden, returned to their house at 105 Manor Road, where the father worked as a carpenter. The child's full name was Frederick Andrew Borden, and according to the almoner's records his was a single birth. Frederick Andrew Borden was not one of two identical twins at birth, so therefore neither can he be one today.