TWENTY-SEVEN.

An excerpt from The Life, Adventures, and Unparalleled Sufferings of Albert Tutino.

    The brilliant showman amused his audiences with his digital dexterity and artistic performance, baffling spectators and challenging competitors to surpass their skill.

    Lucia's mother had worked in Albert's show as his first assistant, and tonight Lucia was to make her debut. They had slated for the act several whimsical feats: the floating light bulb, the dancing handkerchief, the philosophical swan. In the finale, birds were to appear at Lucia's fingertips. Before that, they would flirt with danger in the bullet catch. The trick feature of their program became the talk of the Society of American Magicians; seats were booked weeks in advance.

    After being blindfolded by a scarf of black silk, Lucia positioned herself on stage, pointed to her heart with her index finger, and instructed her father to fire. There was some hesitation on his part, but she assured him that she had often been shot at - but never been hit. The audience laughed uneasily. Albert took aim and pulled the trigger. Lucia's lily white hand shot forward to catch the bullet.

    As a child she thought that her father really had magical powers. His preoccupations were fascinating to her; she idolized him, and when her pet canary died she brought it to his workshop wrapped up in a piece of tissue paper. Lucia plead with him to revive it. She believed with all her heart that her father could, would do anything for her. He could not admit to her the limits of his art, and substituted the bird with one from his own collection. Thus, Lucia had faith from an early age that her father was invincible in the face of death, and when he pointed the gun at her on that unfortunate spring night, she felt truly safe. When the bullet hit her chest she was bewildered to be experiencing intense pain for the first time.