Two Card Control
Audley Walsh

Many card manipulators get a greater thrill by fooling the other fellow than by a regular performance before an audience. The following subtle arrangement by Mr. Audley Walsh, has puzzled many magicians. The effect is that two cards, openly put in widely different parts of the deck are instantly located by a simple cut.

The trick can be done with any deck and under any conditions. It depends on a subtle use of the bridge and the Charlier Pass. The routine is as follows:

Hand the deck to a spectator to be shuffled. Take it back and spring the cards from the right to the left, thus putting a downward bend at the ends of the cards. Square the pack and seizing it between the right fingers at the outer end and the thumb at the inner end, bend up and riffle about one-half of the cards, calling attention to the fact that they have been well mixed as you show the faces. The pack, if looked at sideways, would now have this appearance: Fig. 23.

The illustration is exaggerated for clearness sake, the actual bends should be much smaller.

Turn over the top card, show it and name it, say it is the Five of Spades. Replace it face down on top. With the right fingers and thumb draw out the bottom card and turning it face up, show it and name it also. Let us suppose that this card is the Jack of Diamonds. As you do this, raising the right hand with the card and directing your whole attention to it, drop the left hand slightly and make the Charlier Pass, but do not let the packets fall quite together. Hold the original bottom packet back a little with the left thumb. Fig. 24.

Remarking that you will put the card, the Jack of Diamonds, in the middle of the pack, place it on top of the now lower packet, that is, on top of the original top card, the Five of Spades, allowing it to protrude a little at the outer end and square the two packets.

Take up the top card, now an indifferent card, calling it the Five of Spades, but not showing its face, and insert it in the pack somewhere near the bottom. Let this card also protrude slightly from the end of the deck. Call attention to the fact that the two cards are well separated, push them flush with the other cards, and square the deck very openly. The pack if looked at sideways will look like this: Fig. 25.

The Five of Spades will be the top card of the lower packet and the Jack of Diamonds the lowest card of the upper. By simply finding the opening of the bridge, a process that becomes practically automatic, dividing the pack at that point with the tip of the left thumb and making the Charlier Pass, the two cards return to their original positions at the top and bottom. Destroy the bridge with a riffle and there is no clue left to disclose the secret of the manipulation.

Or, you may finish by taking any card as a locator and, dividing the pack at the bridge with the left thumb, thrust the locator into the deck at that point. Square up openly and hand the deck to a spectator. He finds the locator card between the two cards that had, apparently been so fairly and widely separated. The trick must be worked smartly, the victim being given no time to notice that the face of the top card is not shown when it is thrust into the deck. In Mr. Walsh's skillful hands the feat is invariably successful.