No. 4. In Reverse

This is a novel idea. In order that you may follow the moves clearly it will be well to take a red card, say the seven of hearts, putting it on the face of the deck, and a black card, for example the ace of clubs, which you place under the seven.

You hold the pack in your left hand in the usual position for the color change and stand with your right side to the front. Take the face card off the pack, holding it at the outer end by the tips of the four fingers, pressed close together, and the tip of the thumb at the inner end. Keep the back of your right hand to the audience so that they cannot see any part of the card, but they do see the ace of clubs now on the face of the pack, and you call their particular attention to that card. (Fig. 1).

Now turn your right hand so that the seven of hearts can be seen by everyone and replace it on the ace.

Again take the seven of hearts in your right hand in the same way as before and once more call attention to the ace. Replace the seven on the aec, this time without turning your right hand to showy it first, but as you do so, under cover of your right hand, push the ace a little off the side of the pack with the left thumb and carry At away in your right hand by means of the side slip (Fig. 2). Drop your right hand naturally and concentrate your attention on the face card, the seven of hearts.

You invite your audience to watch that card very closely, as you are about to show some curious manipulations with it. You bring your right hand over the seven of hearts and imitate exactly the act of taking it off as you did several times before, but really, you leave the palmed ace of clubs on the seven, and then hold your hand as if you held the seven of hearts between the tips of the thumb and fingers. The back of your hand is towards the spectators and, seeing the ace of clubs on the face of the deck, they are naturally satisfied that you have the seven of hearts in your right hand as before (Fig. 3).

Keep your eyes fixed on the imaginary card in your right hand, then suddenly say, "Watch the seven of hearts vanish". You make a tossing motion with your right hand, turning it palm to audience, at the same time making a half turn to the right, imitating the action of back palming a card.

Next turn the hand rapidly to show its back, open the fingers widely, then press them together and again turn it to show the palm. In fact, you make all the regular moves which pertain to the back and front palm, and, having no card to conceal, you are able to do them cleanly, to say the least.

In the meantime your left hand has not been idle. You drop it to your side, push the face card, the ace of clubs, down against the side of your leg, hold it there for a moment with the tips of your fingers, while you pull the pack upwards, holding it in the fork of the thumb until the outer edge of the ace clears the pack, then slide the pack down under it, thus transferring the aec to the back of the deck. This will cause the seven of hearts to become the face card and you must, of course, be careful to hold the pack with its face towards your body, so that the spectators cannot get a glimpse of the seven of hearts.

In the course of your manipulations with the imaginary card you bring your right hand with its back to the audience, close the fingers and turn the hand around. Pretend to crumple the card to pieces, then slowly open the fingers and show all parts of the hand. The card has vanished, as you promised it would.

"The fragments of the card are floating around," you say, "and I can reassemble them. Watch."

You make a catch in the air and bring your right hand down on the face of the deck with a slap and, as you remove it the audience see the seven of hearts back again. You must be very careful to hold the deck with its back to the front until you make the slap.

The effect of this little comedy with cards can only be realized by actually working it before an audience. There is a minimum of sleight of hand in it but plenty of scope for acting.