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card, a Ten of Spades, and after more hypnotic passes turn
its face to the spectators.
"Now you see it as the Ten of Spades." Replace it on top.
Wave your hands again.
"Now look at the bottom card. It also is the Ten of Spades."
Hold the pack upright and show the Ten on the bottom.
Under cover of this surprise make the pass and hold a break
with the right thumb between the two packets. Show the
pack upright in the right hand, bottom card facing the
audience, an indifferent card is now seen to be there.
"It is all an optical illusion. The cards are not really Tens of
Spades. They only appear so."
Place the pack in the left hand and slip the tip of the left
little finger into the break. Lift off the top card and show it
is an indifferent card now.
"But when I put you under the influence you can see the
Ten of Spades only, look."
Cut the pack at the break and hold the top portion upright, a
Ten of Spades again faces the audience, Insert the tip of the
left little finger under the top card of the lower packet, i.e.,
the third Ten. Replace the top packet and make the pass,
bringing the three Tens to the bottom. Riffle off the inner
ends of these three cards and insert the tip of the left little
finger between them and the rest of the cards, and hold the
deck in position to execute the bottom palm. (Erdnase, p.
86.)
"I know exactly what you all suspect, that I have been trying
to mislead you and that all the cards are Tens of Spades. I
wouldn't do anything as barefaced as that for worlds. Look!
This card is not a Ten."
Palm the three Tens in the left hand and at once turn the first
card on the table face out. "Nor this," turn the next, "and this
last one is not a Ten either" Turn it also.
"You see there is not a single Ten of Spades in the deck."
Spread the cards face up on the table with a flourish turning
your right side to the audience as you do so and slipping the
three palmed cards into your left trousers pocket at the same
moment.
"In fact knowing that card is an unlucky one for my trick, I
put it in my pocket before I began. Here it is."
Thrust your left hand into your pocket, bring out one of the
three Tens and thrown it on the table.
Smoothly executed and
well acted the feat has an
extraordinary effect. It is
one of the few card tricks
suitable for performance
before the largest or the
smallest audiences. Paul
Rosini, the Philadelphia
prestidigitateur, makes a
feature of the trick and in
his hands it is a
masterpiece.
A very good plan for displaying the three cards when
performing the trick in a parlor, is to take a large thick book,
stand it upright and insert the cards as shown in the
illustration. This is another idea of Dr. Jack Daley's who
also makes a specialty of the trick. In his hands it leaves
nothing to be desired.
2. Using a Short Card
The use of a short card makes the placing of the three cards
in position very easy. Put the short card on top of the pack
with the three special cards following. Undercut about half
the deck and shuffle overhand. Break the deck at the short
and force one of the three Tens, then square the deck
openly, tapping all sides on the table.
For the return of the card, break the deck above the short
card so that the chosen card goes on top of it. There will
now be two Tens below the short card and one above it.
When you break the pack to riffle shuffle include the short
card in the right hand packet and let at least two cards from
this portion drop first then hold back the top card and let it
fall between the two top cards of the left hand packet. The
three cards are then in the required positions viz. one on top
one third from the top and the last one second from the
bottom.
The routine then proceeds exactly as in No. 1.
3. With a Borrowed Deck
This routine is another example of the subtle principle of the
addition to a borrowed deck of strange cards, the faces only
of which are seen by the audience producing thereby an
extraordinary effect. Take two cards from any deck of the
same value and suit as the card you propose to use for the
trick, say Tens of Spades. Apply diachylon to the backs,
sufficient to make them adhere to another card when
pressed against it. Put one of these in your right hand
trousers pocket, back outwards, and the other in your lower
left vest pocket, also back outward.
Locate the Ten of Spades in the borrowed deck and force it
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