Billy Bottle watched from the shadows as Mr. Houdini parted company with Theo, possibilities scurrying through his mind like rats through a dark alley. Houdini thought he was Mr. Muckety-Muck, did he? Maybe he’d like to be taken down a notch or two. And Billy was the man to do it.

What Billy heard when he eavesdropped through the vent weren’t dull as dirt as Theo’s conversations with all them scientist types. This time he could almost follow the conversation, and it perked his spirits up considerable.

Seemed like there was money to be made from Theo’s crazy ideas and schemes, if that didn’t beat all. A great deal more than the fifteen hundred dollars Mr. Houdini was set to pay her. Though it was a strain on his gray matter, Billy Bottle could parse out that Theo’s ideas could be desirable to magicians. But why stop there? For that matter, why stop with vanishing elephants? If she had figured out how to do that, what else could she vanish? Or whom?

Being so young and book-minded, it would be burdensome for Theo to properly grasp the implications of the opportunities that had ventured her way. It was Billy’s duty to relieve her of that burden. And if she didn’t see it his way, he had some tricks up his sleeve from the good old days to convince her, did old Billy. He would help Theo envision her full and glittering future. A full and glittering future that did some good for old Billy Bottle himself.

In celebration, the man of the hour let his impressive nose lead him straightaway to the nearest beer hall where he treated himself to a pint and a goodly slab of shepherd’s pie.