The Torn and Restored Card,
Using a Borrowed Deck

This trick, which is, I think, the first example of the application of the addition of a strange card to a pack, was devised by me many years ago. A version of. it has recently been described by another writer. I take this opportunity of claiming my own. The effect is that a card chosen from a borrowed pack is destroyed and restored in a surprising way.

You have a card of your own, say the eight of hearts, of any pattern on the back, in a handy pocket. Perhaps the best plan is to have it in the left trouser pocket, face inwards. In the course of some tricks with a borrowed deck you have located in it the eight of hearts. Force this on a spectator and to give you an opportunity to secure the eight of hearts in your left hand, ask the drawer to hold the card up and let everyone see what it is. Palm your card in the left hand, the back of the card being next to the palm so that when you put the pack on your left hand that card joins it at the bottom, reversed.

Cut off half the pack and place the cut on the table. On this the spectator is invited to place his card and you drop the rest on top, being careful, of course, not to expose the reversed card on the bottom of this portion. Your card is thus the next card above the chosen one. Square the cards very slowly and openly and call attention to the fact that you do not lift the pack off the table.

Ask the name of the card selected, naturally you are not supposed to know what it is. "The eight of hearts," you say. "Very well, under these impossible conditions I will order that card to turn completely over, so that it will be face up, all the other cards remaining face down. "Eight of hearts, Allez donc." Spread the cards out with a sweep and the eight is revealed reversed.

This, in itself, is a sufficiently surprising effect but you have only just begun. Take up the cards above your eight and put them m the left hand, then draw the face up eight towards yourself out of anyone's reach, and place the rest of the pack on top of those in the left hand. The chosen card is now on the top of the pack.

The next move is to reverse this card and pass it to the middle of the pack. An easy way of doing this is to hand an envelope to be examined. While this is being done drop the left hand to your side, push off the top card against your thigh and turn it over, see page 94. Your hand is out of sight for a moment only and the turn takes a fraction of time to do. Making a casual cut, or, if you prefer it, the regular two hand pass, bring the card to the middle of the pack. This is then put in the envelope which is fastened down and placed in a spectator's pocket.

Pick up your eight of hearts and, keeping its face to the audience, tear it again and again into small fragments. Ball these up in a piece of tissue paper which you secretly exchange for a duplicate piece, balled similarly. Order the pieces to pass back to the pack and join up again. The tissue is opened and the fragments have vanished. The spectator opens the envelope and in the middle of the pack he finds the card complete and reversed.

A striking effect can be obtained by using flash paper to wrap up the paper, or you may put the pieces in an envelope and burn it, so destroying all the incriminating evidence.

Under proper conditions and when it is plainly impossible for you to have obtained a duplicate card, I know of no more effective trick than this. It is well to be prepared with a card of the ordinary size and one of bridge size.