The Prestige (30 page)

After a longer and more tedious period than I can describe here, Tesla finally said, “Mr
Angier, I believe we are ready.”

And so it was that I went to examine the apparatus, for all the world like a member of a
theatre audience invited on stage to inspect a magician's cabinet, and with Tesla I went
outside and established beyond doubt that his designated target area was empty of any
metal rods.

When he inserted the experimental rod, and manipulated his lever, a most satisfactory bang
heralded successful completion of the experiment. The three of us rushed outside, and sure
enough, there on the grass, was the familiar orange-painted iron rod.

Back in the laboratory we all examined the “original” piece. Stone-cold it was, but
undoubtedly identical to the twin that had been made of it across the emptiness of space.

“Tomorrow, sir,” Tesla said to me, “tomorrow, and with the consent of my noble assistant
here, we shall endeavour to safely transport the cat from one place to another. If that
can be achieved, I take it you will be satisfied?”

“Indeed, Mr Tesla,” I said warmly. “Indeed.”

20th August 1900

And indeed it has been done. The cat has crossed the aether unscathed!

There was a small hitch, however, and Tesla has returned to the preoccupations of his
calling, and once more I am banished to my hotel, and once more I find myself fretting
about the time that is slipping away.

Tesla promises me another demonstration tomorrow, and this time he has told me there will
be no more problems. I sense a man who is anxious for the remainder of his fee.

11th October 1900

Caldlow House, Derbyshire

I did not expect to live to write these words. Following the accidental demise of my elder
brother Henry, and because of his having left no issue, I have finally come to the title
and lands of my father.

I am now permanently in residence in the family home, and have abandoned my career as a
stage illusionist. My daily routine is occupied with the administration of the estate, and
by needing to attend to the numerous practical problems that have been created by Henry's
whims, peccadillos and sheer financial misjudgements.

I now sign myself,

Rupert, 14th Earl of Colderdale.

12th November 1900

I have just returned from a visit of a few days to my old house in London. My intention
had been to clear out the place, and my former workshop, and sell both properties on the
open market. The Caldlow estate is on the verge of bankruptcy and I am in a hurry to raise
some cash for urgent repairs to both the house and some of the estate buildings.
Naturally, I have been cursing myself for squandering practically all the accumulated
wealth from my stage career on Tesla. Just about my last act on leaving Colorado, as I
returned to England in haste on the news of Henry's death, was to hand over the rest of
the fee. It did not occur to me then how radically my whole life was to be changed by the
news.

Returning to Idmiston Villas had an unanticipated effect on me, though. I found it full of
memories, of course, and these were as mixed as all such memories can be, but above all I
was reminded of my first days in London. Then I was hardly more than a boy, disinherited,
callow in the ways of the world, incompletely educated, not trained in any skill or
profession. Yet I had carved out a life and livelihood for myself, against the odds, and
in the end made myself moderately wealthy and more than usually renowned. I was, I suppose
I still am, at the top of the magic profession. And far from resting on my laurels, I had
invested most of my money in new and innovative magical apparatus, the use of which would
doubtless have given my career a new momentum.

I thought in such wistful fashion for two days, and finally sent round a note to Julia's
address. She was on my mind, because in spite of the fact that we separated many years ago
I still identify my early days in London with her. I cannot any longer distinguish my
early plans and dreams from the period in which I fell in love with her.

Rather to my surprise, but to my intense pleasure, she consented to meet me, and two days
ago I spent an afternoon with her and the children at the house of one of her women
friends.

To see my family again in such circumstances was emotionally overwhelming, and any plans I
might have made beforehand to raise practical matters were abandoned. Julia, at first cool
and remote, was obviously much affected by my expressions of shock and emotion (Edward,
sixteen now, is so tall and good-looking!; Lydia and Florence are so beautiful and
gentle!; I could not keep my eyes off them all afternoon) and before long she was speaking
kindly and warmly to me.

I then told her my news. Even when we were married and living together I had never
revealed my past to her, so what I had to say to her was a triple surprise. Firstly I had
to tell her that I had once renounced a family and estate of which she had never heard,
secondly that I had now returned to it, and thirdly that as a consequence I had decided to
abandon my stage career.

As I should have guessed in advance, Julia appeared to take all this calmly. (Only when I
told her that she should henceforward be correctly addressed as Lady Julia did her
composure momentarily break.) A little later, she asked me if I was sure I should abandon
my career. I said I saw no alternative. She told me that although we were separated she
had continued to follow my magic career with admiration, regretting only that she were no
longer a part of it.

As we spoke I felt rising in me, or more correctly sinking out of me, a despair that I had
thrown away my wife, and more unforgivably my splendid children, for the sake of the
American woman.

Yesterday, before leaving London, I sought out Julia a second time. This time the children
were not with her.

I threw myself at her mercy, and begged her forgiveness for all the sins I had committed
against her. I pleaded with her to return to me, and live with me once more as my wife. I
promised her anything in my power to grant, should she accept.

She said no, but promised that she would consider carefully. I deserve no better.

Later in the day I caught the overnight train to Sheffield. I thought of nothing but
reconciliation with Julia.

14th November 1900

However, I am obliged to think of nothing but money, faced once more as I am with the
realities of this decaying house.

It is ridiculous to be inconvenienced by shortage of money so soon after squandering that
huge amount, so I have written to Tesla and demanded a refund of everything I paid him. It
is nearly three months since I left Colorado Springs and I have not had a single word from
him. He will have to pay, no matter what his circumstances, because at the same time I
have written to the firm of attorneys in New York who aided me in a small legal matter
during my last tour. I have instructed them to start proceedings against him from the
first day of next month. If he refunds me immediately he receives my letter I shall call
off the hounds, but he will have to take the consequences if he does not.

15th November 1900

I am about to return to London.

17th November 1900

I am back in Derbyshire, and weary of travelling on trains. I am not, however, weary of
life.

Julia has put to me a proposition about a way we could possibly be together in the future.
It boils down to my having to make a simple decision.

She says she will return to me, live with me once more as my wife, but only if I resume my
magic career. She wishes me to leave Caldlow House and return to Idmiston Villas. She says
that she and the children do not wish to move to a house in a remote and, to them, unknown
part of Derbyshire. She has put the point to me in terms so simple that I know they are
non-negotiable.

To try to persuade me that her proposal is also for my own good, she adds four general
arguments.

First she says the stage is in her blood as much as mine, and that although she now sees
the children as her first duty she would wish to participate wholly in all my future stage
endeavours. (I presume by this she means I will not be allowed foreign tours without her,
so there will be no risk of another Olivia Svenson coming between us.)

At the beginning of this year, she next argues, I was at the peak of my profession, but
that by default the wretched Borden is on the brink of taking my laurels. Apparently, he
is continuing to perform his version of the switch illusion.

Julia then reminds me that the only reliable way I know of earning money is to perform
magic, and that I have a duty to go on supporting her as well as running the family estate
she has never seen and had never heard of until last week.

Finally she points out that I will not lose my inheritance by continuing to work in
London, and the house and everything that goes with the estate will still be waiting for
me when the time comes for retirement. Urgent matters, such as repairs, can be managed
from London almost as easily as from the house.

So I have returned to Derbyshire, ostensibly to attend to matters here, but in fact I do
need some time alone to think.

I cannot walk away from my responsibilities in Caldlow House. There are the tenant
farmers, the household staff, the commitments my family have traditionally made to the
rural council, the church, the parishioners, and so on. I find myself taking these matters
seriously, so I presume they have always been flowing, unsuspected, in the blood hitherto.

But what practical use can I be in any of these functions if I am to become, as seems
likely, bankrupt?

19th November 1900

What I really want is to be with Julia and my family once more, but to do so means
accepting Julia's terms. Moving back to London would not be difficult, but I do feel a
terrific resistance to the idea of going back on the stage.

I have been away from it for just a few weeks, but I had not realized what a burden it had
all become. I remember the day, back in Colorado Springs, when the news of Henry's death
belatedly reached me. I thought nothing of Henry and his humiliating but appropriate
demise in Paris. What I felt was for myself, a burst of relief, genuine and uplifting
relief.

I would be free at last of the mental stresses and strains associated with performing
illusions. There would be an end, a thankful end, to the daily hours of practice. No more
overnight stays in appalling provincial hotels or seaside lodging houses. No more tiresome
train journeys. I would be free of the ceaseless attention to practical matters; making
sure the props and costumes would arrive in the same places as me and at the same time,
checking the backstage areas of the theatres for the best use of my props, employing and
paying the staff, and a hundred other minor chores. All these had suddenly vanished from
my life.

And I had also thought about Borden. There was my unshakable foe, lurking out there in the
world of magic, ready to resume his campaign of pranks against me.

If I never went back I would miss none of it. I had not realized how the resentment had
been growing inside me.

But Julia tempts me.

There is the happy laughter from the audience when I work a surprising effect, the
radiance of the lights beaming down upon me, the friendship of the other artistes I meet
in the daily round, the applause at the end of my performance. Inevitably also, the fame,
the admiring glances in the street, the respectful regard of my contemporaries, the
recognition in the highest areas of society. No honest man could say these mean nothing to
him.

And the money. How I crave the money!

It is of course no longer a question of what I will decide, but how soon I can convince
myself I must do it.

20th November 1900

To London once more by train.

21st November 1900

I am at Idmiston Villas, and I have found here a letter from Alley, the assistant to
Nikola Tesla. I now transcribe it:

September 27, 1900

Mr Angier, Sir:

I don't expect you have heard but Nikola Tesla has left Colorado already, and is rumored
to have moved his operation to the East, probably to New York or New Jersey. His
laboratory here has been seized by his creditors, and it is currently looking for a
purchaser. I have been left in the lurch, with more than a month's pay due to me.

You will wish to know, however, that in some matters Mr Tesla is a man of honor, and
before our work here was completed your equipment was as instructed shipped to your
workshop.

Once the apparatus has been correctly put together (I wrote the assembly instructions
myself) you will find it is in complete working order, and operates exactly to the agreed
technical specification. The device is self-regulating, and should continue to work
without adjustment or repair for many years. All you should do is keep it clean, brighten
the electrical contact points should they become dull, and in general ensure that no
physical damage goes unrepaired. (Mr Tesla enclosed a set of spares for those parts which
will, in the ordinary course, require replacement. All the other parts, such as the wooden
struts, may be replaced from normal sources.)

I would of course be fascinated to learn what illusions you work with this extraordinary
invention, because I am as you know one of your greatest admirers. Although you were not
here to see it for yourself, I can testify that Snowshoes (the name of my children's pet
cat) was safely transported several times by the device, but is back once more with our
family as a domestic animal.

Let me say in conclusion, Sir, that I was honored to play some part, no matter how small,
in building this apparatus for you.

Yours most sincerely, Fareham K. Alley, Dip. Eng.

P.S.: You were once kind enough to admire, and pretend bafflement by, the small tricks I
had the temerity to show to you. Since you made such a point of demanding an explanation,
perhaps you would like to know that my little illusion with the five playing-cards and the
disappearing silver dollars was achieved by a combination of classic palming and a card
force. I was most gratified by your response to this trick, and would be delighted to send
on detailed instructions about each move in turn, should you require them. F.K.A.