The Homing Belles

This trick utilizes the change, explained previously. It has a startling effect and is not at all difficult to do.

Effect:--A card is chosen by a spectator. He replaces it and shuffles thc pack freely. That card and the three others in the pack of the same value reverse themselves, being found face upward when the deck is spread on the table. These four cards are removed and four other cards are reversed in the deck which is then held by a spectator. The four cards held by the performer return to the pack, in which they are again found to be reversed, and the four cards which were openly turned over in the deck appear in the performer's hand.

Method:--Four extra queens, one of each suit, are required. They may be of any pattern as their backs are not seen by the audience. These you bare in your left trouser pocket, their faces being inward.

You force one of the four queens of whatever deck you are using; it will enhance the effect if you nsc a borrowed deck, but be sure to ascertain beforehand that it is complete. You may do this very naturally by running through it to take out the Joker, which you discard for any reason that may occur to you. To force one of four cards is a comparatively easy thing to do, seeing that it makes no difference which one of the four is taken. You allow the spectator to replace his card and at once take the pack and shuffle it freely.

You now have an opportunity to palm the four queens in your left hand. While the spectator is shuffling the pack and you are telling him to make a thorough job of it, not to forget the card he drew, and so on and so forth, you carelessly thrust both hands in your trouser pockets. When he is ready to return the pack, take your right hand out of your pocket and hold it out to receive the cards. Hold the hand so that all can see it is empty. A moment later withdraw your left hand from the left pocket and bring it upwards to meet the right hand. Keep the left hand back outwards till the moment the hands meet, then turn it palm upwards and place the pack face down on the face up queens in its palm. A trial or two before a mirror will give you the correct timing in this action.

The four queens have thus been added to the bottom of the pack faces upward; it is now necessary to distribute them throughout the pack. The best and safest way to do this is by an overhand shuffle. You must remember that the audience must not be allowed to get a glimpse of the bottom of the pack until the four strange queens have been shuffled out of the way.

You turn your right side to the front and you hold the pack so that it is completely shielded by the back of the right hand. To begin the shuffle you run off six or eight cards into the left hand, well down into the fork of the thumb so that the left fingers can be extended over the sides of the cards. Then reaching with them under the pack in the right hand, you pull off the lowest of the queens and at the same time with the left thumb slide the top card of the pack onto it. These two cards fall together on the cards just before shuffled into the left hand. The card pulled off by the thumb hides the face of the reversed queen.

Again run eight or nine cards off the pack into the left hand, then repeat the process of getting a reversed queen off the bottom as already explained. You repeat these movements twice more, with the result that the reversed queens are scattered throughout the deck. A little difficulty may be found in pulling off the bottom cards with the left fingers smoothly, but a very little practice will overcome this. It is much better to shuffle rather slowly and smoothly than to have a series of stops and jerks as the queens are pulled off. It is essential that the cards shuffled off shall go well down into the fork of the thumb.

This process completed, if the pack is one which has a white margin on the back, you may fan the pack and show the faces. The reversed cards will not show up if the fan is spread smoothly, but do not attempt this unless the pack is in good order, and on no account do it if the pack has a solid pattern on the back as with Steamboats. You ask the spectator to name his card and, after announcing what is to take place, you spread the cards face down on the table with a great flourish. Your added queens show up reversed. This is a surprising effect, but you have a more surprising one to follow.

You draw the queens out of the line of other cards towards yourself, still face up, and place them one on top of the other, being careful that they are out of reach of anyone else and that in lifting them you do not expose their backs.

You spread the pack with the faces of the cards towards you and quickly note the four bottom cards. If these do not consist of one card of each suit change whatever cards are necessary to bring this about. You say that you will pick out one card of each suit that you know will give the result you want and that you will reverse these cards in the pack. What you really do is to find the first of the queens belonging to the pack as you run over the faces of the cards. You stop there, calling it by the name of the first of the four bottom cards you noted. You turn this queen face down by pushing it a little off the side of the cards in your left hand and lifting it over with the edge of the packet in your right hand. In this way the queen is turned over sideways towards yourself and no part of its face should have been exposed to the audience.

You find the remaining three queens and repeat the same operation with each, calling them by the names of the other bottom cards, and then reversing them as they lie in the deck. Before you turn the pack face down you slip the left little finger under the four cards whose names you have called, so that you can hold them separated from the rest of the pack. Then having turned the pack down you palm these in your left hand. You hand the pack to a spectator to hold tightly between his hands.

Take the face up queens off the table and place them in your left hand ready for the Hand to Hand Palm Change. You have your left side to the front so that the faces of the cards are towards the audience. You cover them with the right hand as you turn to the left and apparently throw them face down on the table. Really, of course, you make the change and it is the four palmed cards from the pack that fall.

The trick is done and you have only to announce the startling effect that is to take place--the queens to go back home, again reversed, and the four reversed cards to leave the pack and appear in your hand in their place. You have ample opportunity to pocket your four queens, which you have palmed in your right hand, while the pack is examined and the reversed queens are displayed. Then you pick up the four cards from the table and show that they are actually those that just previously were reversed in the deck.

If the reader distrusts his ability to make the change described, a good effect may still be obtained by changing the packets under cover of wrapping the cards in a handkerchief. You throw it over your left hand then in placing the queens under it, palm them, and lift the palmed cards from the left hand. Bring the left hand out and take the cards and the middle of the handkerchief from the above. With the right hand twist the folds of the fabric and hold it thus. This will give you a perfect alibi for keeping the right hand closed and so concealing the cards you hold palmed in it, and, at the finish of the trick, you simply shake the four cards out and thrust the handkerchief into your pocket, at the same time getting rid of the palmed cards.