‘Yes, sir!’ said Amy, giving him a salute. ‘Has he been taking lessons from the Daleks?’ she whispered to the Doctor.

They had to sign a form. Amy spotted that the Doctor had signed it ‘Fred Astaire’, so she signed it ‘Ginger Rogers’. The man didn’t seem to notice. He ushered them in to the main theatre and went to tell the rules to the next person.

A short, stocky girl in top hat and tails was on the stage. ‘Just one more trick,’ she pleaded, taking her hat off her head and pulling some flags out of it.

‘Thank you, we’ve seen quite enough,’ someone said from the stalls. ‘That’s a No from me.’

Amy peered into the seats. She’d seen the three judges on TV before. That voice belonged to Austin Hart, a tall, smug-looking man covered in fake tan. Next to him was Bill Evans who was short, bald and Welsh. The only woman in the line-up was Daisy Mead, a model who’d married a pop star.

‘Enough for a life time,’ said Bill Evans. ‘Don’t give up the day job, love. No from me.’

Daisy Mead drawled, ‘I don’t want to be cruel, right? It was just dreadful though. Really bad.’

‘So that’s a hat-trick of “No”s for your hat trick,’ sniggered Austin Hart. ‘Sammy? Do you have any comments to add?’

‘Learning magic is hard work,’ said Sammy Star. ‘It’s also lonely.’ The girl on stage nodded. ‘For some people it’s worth it. For you, it isn’t. You’re awful.’

The girl burst into tears. She put the hat back on her head, flags hanging over her ears.

Amy turned to the Doctor. ‘That’s really mean. Do they have to be so nasty? So her magic’s not great. What have they done with their lives?’

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. ‘For some people, being mean to others is the point of their lives. They’re the ones you should be feeling sorry for. It must be worse than being a Cyberman.’

As the girl shuffled off the stage, a voice called ‘Number thirty-seven, please.’

‘Ooh, that’s us!’ said the Doctor. He nudged Amy, and led her onto the stage.

‘Name?’ asked Austin Hart.

‘I’m Doctor Daring,’ said the Doctor giving them a wave, ‘and this is the Amazing Amy, my lovely helper.’ Amy smiled and did a twirl.

‘What’s your act?’

The Doctor bowed. ‘I am an escape artist. In fact, I am the best escape artist you will ever see.’

All four of the judges started laughing.

The Doctor turned to Amy. ‘You know, I think they might be laughing at us, rather than laughing with us. That’s not very nice.’

‘Well, let’s give them something to laugh about,’ said Amy, opening the carpet bag. She pulled out the chains with a flourish and began to wind them around the Doctor. Next out of the bag came three huge padlocks. She displayed them to the watchers, then linked them through the chains. One by one, she snapped them shut.

The Doctor wriggled his fingers, showing he was held firm by the chains. Amy faced him and raised her eyebrows. He gave a slight nod. That was their signal to show the bonds were loose enough for him. He had to seem trapped, but still be able to reach his sonic screwdriver.

So far things were going as planned. Amy pulled a sack out of the bag and placed it over the Doctor’s head. He gave her a wink before the cloth covered his face. She then produced a large wooden cabinet from the bag. Although such a big box could never have fitted in a bag of that size, no one clapped. Amy almost laughed. The judges thought an alien wonder was just a cheap trick! They really were clueless.

Getting the box into the right place was the most crucial part of the Doctor’s plan. He’d told Amy just where it had to be placed on the stage. She had to be careful while looking careless. The watchers mustn’t guess that she was putting the cabinet on top of a trapdoor.

Certain it was in the right place, Amy stepped away from the box. She tapped it hard on all sides to show it was solid. Then she ushered the bound Doctor into it. Using handcuffs, she fixed him to metal rings inside the box. When it was clear that the Doctor was helpless, she shut the door on him.

For Amy, the next few minutes would be tricky. All eyes were on her, and she had to keep it that way. The Doctor needed all the time she could buy him.

‘Trapped in this box!’ she cried. ‘How will he escape his bonds?’

The seconds ticked past slowly as she danced around the cabinet. Whenever she was behind it, out of sight of the judges, she rattled a piece of chain. That would make people think the Doctor was trying to escape inside the box.

At last someone called out, ‘Three minutes are up.’

‘Just a bit longer!’ she called back. She put her ear to the box, acting as if she could hear a voice from inside. ‘He’s nearly free!’

‘Do us a favour, love!’ said Bill Evans. ‘You’re wasting our time.’

‘Well spotted. That’s the point,’ muttered Amy to herself.

‘You’re going to have to let him out now,’ said Austin, sounding bored.

‘I am, like, so asleep already,’ said Daisy Mead.

Amy smiled and pretended to try the door. ‘It’s stuck!’ she said. ‘Hold on, give me a moment.’ She made a show of pulling the handle. ‘No, really stuck. Sorry!’

‘Hang on a minute,’ came an angry voice. ‘I know that accent.’ Sammy Star jumped up from his seat and stormed onto the stage. Amy ducked round behind the box. She was able to waste quite a few more seconds as Sammy Star chased her round and round.

The judges cheered from the stalls. ‘This is the best thing we’ve seen yet!’ called Austin Hart.

It couldn’t go on for ever, of course. Sammy Star caught up with Amy and grabbed hold of her wig. ‘Aha! I thought so!’ he cried as her long red hair tumbled out. ‘The Scottish redhead from last night! She’s a spy,’ he told the judges. ‘She’s trying to ruin my act, her and this Doctor Daring friend of hers.’

‘Yeah, but he’s, like, stuck in that box, yeah?’ said Daisy Mead. ‘So he’s not doing anything, is he?’

Sammy Star hissed through his teeth. He shoved Amy out of the way and opened the box.

It was empty.

‘Oh, sorry, did we say this was an escape act? It’s really a disappearing act,’ said Amy. She grinned. ‘Our mistake.’

Chapter Eight

AS SOON AS Amy shut the door of the box, the Doctor set to work. He’d hidden the sonic screwdriver up his sleeve, and now he shook it down into his hand. Amy had been careful to leave the chains loose enough to allow him to do that.

A couple of quick buzzes from the screwdriver made the chains and padlocks fall away, followed by the handcuffs. The Doctor pulled the sack off his head and knelt down.

He’d watched Sammy Star’s act closely. Sammy had appeared from a ‘grave’ as if by magic. The Doctor had worked out that there must be a trapdoor in the stage. He’d told Amy to put the cabinet over that exact spot. Now he opened the trapdoor and climbed down.

There was just enough space to stand up under the stage. He shut the trapdoor behind him, then looked around. A dim light showed a door to one side. The Doctor went through it and found himself in the heart of the theatre. There were no guards or dogs as no intruder was supposed to get this far in. This was the place he’d been searching for, Sammy Star’s prop store.

There was a keypad by the storeroom door. A sequence of numbers would be needed to unlock it.

Just as he was about to attack the lock with the sonic screwdriver, he heard movement. There was someone inside the room. It couldn’t be Sammy Star, as he was still upstairs in the theatre. The Doctor shrugged and knocked on the door. It seemed the easiest way.

‘Who is it?’ a girl’s voice called from inside the room.

‘It’s me,’ the Doctor called back. He’d noticed before that people often accepted that without asking who ‘me’ was.