During my visit to the McCord Museum, I was fortunate enough to have read a compilation (April 24, 1920 v1 n1 to June 5th 1920 v1 n7) of “The Amazing Exploits of Houdini” found in The Kinema Comic.
- The Bride & The Orangutan.
- The Jewel Thieves.
- “Stop Thief!”
- The Gold Melters
- ADVENTURE OF THE MIDLAND EXPRESS.
- In The Dead of Night.
- Out of The Sky.
Each issue contains a several page serialized fictional story (by-lined by Houdini). This week I share my paraphrased version of “Adventure of the Midland Express” found in the May 22 1920 v1 n5 issue:
Houdini is traveling on train from Liverpool to London. The paranoid actions of his sole traveling companion got on his nerves.
Houdini asked what his worry was.
“Well, the fact is sir,” he said, “there are a couple of men on this train who are out to scrounge some rather important papers from me. They are in the next carriage but one to this, and ever since we left Liverpool I have been expecting them to make the trip along the footboard and risk their arm. I’m a bit of an inventor, sir, and ever since I came out of hospital I have been working on an idea concerning a new shuttle which, I feel confident, will revolutionize the weaving industry. Last week I perfected it, and in a week and childish moment before I had got the idea patented. I showed it some friends, who brought one of these aforesaid scoundrels along with them. Ever since that day, this fellow has been working, making plans of my invention, but he had not yet finished. He knows that I have my plans in my pocket now, and that I am on my way to London to get the idea patented. His plans—or, rather, the copy of mine—are not ready, and I know jolly well that he is out to prevent these plans of mine reaching the Patent Office before his, and that he will go to any length to scotch me.”
“My name is Houdini, perhaps you have heard of it. I used to be rather well known in Liverpool. An any rate, I once broke out of the Bridewell there, and mixed up a few prisoners for them, and if you care to trust me, I will guarantee that your plans will arrive safely at the Patent Office tomorrow morning.”
Dane handed the plans over to Houdini.
Houdini told Dane: “At Leicester, I’m going to leave you, but there’s no need for you to be alarmed. I shall be staying at the Contour Hotel in London, and if we should get separated on the way south look me up tomorrow morning, and I’ll have the plans safe and sound for you to take along to the Patent Office.”
The train slid into the Leicester station, and Houdini secretly changed carriages.
Five minutes outside of Leicester, Houdini put his head outside the window and saw a man moving along the footboard toward Dane’s compartment.
By the time Houdini made his way to the footboard, there was no trace of the man. When he reached the window of Dane’s carriage he was being attacked, not by one man, but by two.
Houdini quickly joined in the fight and put one man out of action, then the other.
As Houdini turned toward an unconscious Dane, the man Houdini knocked out first recovered sufficiently to take a steel bar to Houdini’s skull.
“Neither of em’ are dead!” was the first words Houdini heard on recovering consciousness. Bending over Houdini was a man in uniform who told him he didn’t know what happened but that they were in St. Pancras Station. Dane was still unconscious and there was no sign of the other men.
Houdini and Dane were helped into a taxi that took them to a hotel, where a doctor was sent for.
Eventually they both recovered enough to have a conversation.
Dane told Houdini, “They got the plans after all. I saw them searching your pockets before they whacked me on the head again.”
Houdini smiled, and told him to have the hotel servant deliver his correspondence, which included a large envelope.
“That envelope contains your plans. Better just look and see that they are intact. I thought the post would be safer than my pocket, so I addressed the envelope at Leicester and dropped it into the box. Everything all right?”
“I do wish I had a brain!” was all the comment Dane made.