Summary

Chapter 13. Experiencing an ever-growing dissatisfaction with his escape and magic routines, Houdini learns to fly. He conducts an informal exhibition of his new-found talent for a number of German officers. The Commandant of the Imperial German Forces asks him to perform another exhibition, and Houdini complies. Unbeknownst to Houdini, Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, the Countess Sophie, are in the crowd, Houdini meets the Archduke after his display, and the Archduke congratulates him on inventing the airplane.

Chapter 14. Father returns home from his journey to the Arctic to find Mother caring for the washerwoman’s child. The washerwoman, Sarah, meanwhile, remains sequestered in her room upstairs. Father feels isolated from his family and former life as his wife now exhibits a greater competency and business acumen, and his son has matured. Mother’s Younger Brother, increasingly depressed by Evelyn Nesbit’s rejection, constructs a bomb...