A Novel Reverse Discovery

Effect:--A card having been chosen and returned to the pack, you allow the spectator to shuffle the cards and he then locates his card himself in a surprising way.

Method:--A card having been freely chosen, noted, returned to the pack and the pack shuffled, you have secretly brought the card to the top by whatever method you use. You palm the card in your right hand and turn the next one face up to prove that you have not brought the chosen card to the top. Call particular attention to the one turned over and let it be plainly seen that it is a single card, without actually asserting the fact; you may let it drop and pick it up, for instance, then turn it face down again on the top of the deck.

Bring your right hand squarely over the deck, replacing the palmed card on top, and at once turn the pack over to show the bottom card, and spread three or four cards to show it is not near the bottom either.

Turn the cards face down and, while you expatiate on the fact that the chosen card can only be found by having it named and then picked out from the others by running through the whole deck, you get ready for the double lift by separating the two top cards from the rest and pushing them a little off the side of the deck. "However," you say, "there is what we call Fate, Luck, or, if you prefer it, Chance. I have found it a very curious thing that whenever the ----- of ----- (you make the double lift and name the face card) is on top of the pack my luck is in. Let's try the experiment. First, will you shuffle the cards?"

You hand the deck to a spectator but you retain the double card in your right hand, face up. Receive the shuffled pack face down on your left hand. Request the spectator to lift up a portion of the deck at the outer end, just a little way, and you insert the double card, face up, at that point. You push it in lengthways until only about an inch of it protrudes, then with the tips of your second and third lingers push the lower card flush with the rest of the cards. The moment you have done this turn the card in the right fingers around to the side of the pack so that its ends protrude on either side.

The position now is that this face up card is in the middle of the pack, in the location chosen by the spectator, its ends extend over the sides of the deck, and under it you have secretly placed the chosen card face up. You ask thc spectator who chose the card, to take hold of one end of the deck, while you hold the other. You show that it is impossible to alter the position of the protruding card, unless it is withdrawn and again inserted.

You have the chosen card named and you ask the spectator to lift off the protruding card by its ends, together with all the cards above it. He himself thus reveals his card, face up on the lower portion of the pack, and you remind him that he chose the location, without any interference from you.