young children could be capable of photographic fraud, and
Conan-Doyle himself arrives at the girls' home with Houdini, Gardner and two new cameras. Arthur catches Houdini poking around and tells him point-blank that he doesn't believe that the fairies are real, but that no trickery took place in his darkroom either. Abetted by the buffoonish Gardner, Elsie and Frances soon come up with two more photos and Conan-Doyle has the story published in The Strand Magazine, promising everyone's names will be changed. But a newsman soon identifies the beck near Cottingley, tracing the girls through the local school and besieging the family. Hundreds of people invade the village in automobiles and on foot, and the fairies flee the mob. By way of apology to the fairies, the girls finish Joseph's fairy-house and leave it in the forest as a gift.
The girls are invited to London by Conan-Doyle, where they embrace their celebrity and see Houdini perform. In a quiet moment backstage Houdini asks
Elsie if she wants to know how he does his tricks
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