Lord Frederick Spencer Hamilton in 1921, described an alleged demonstration of the trick, told to him by Colonel Bernard. Bernard described taking photographs of the boy climbing the rope, disappearing and reappearing at a courtyard in Calcutta. However, the courtyard had been filled with dense smoke and when he had developed the photographs they revealed that "neither the juggler, nor the boy, nor the rope had moved at all." This caused Hamilton to suggest that the juggler had somehow drugged or hypnotized Bernard. Elliot criticized this second-hand account as nothing more than "hearsay evidence." He found the details and lack of witnesses suspicious, concluding that Bernard had hoaxed Hamilton.