THE MAGIC UNTYING.
Give one end of a yard of strong, stiff, smooth twine to a person to hold, while you retain the other in your right hand. Put your left hand under the twine, half way between the ends, and make a single tie (or, in sailor phrase, a half hitch) over the string between your left hand and the end A in the illustration.
Fig. 29.
Fig. 30.
Fig. 31.
Draw the tie close but not tight over the left hand, B being the tie. Open out the left hand so that, when closed, the loop will be loose on the hand. Pass the end in the right hand over the left palm on the inside of the string already there, and make another single tie over the string at the same place as where you formed the first one, closing your left hand, which loosens the strings around its fingers. After the tie, pass the twine under the back of the left hand, between the strings C and D (in the second illustration) Fig. 30.
The dotted line E is the string A. Take that string up on the left hand fingers as in the third illustration.
By practice this can be done unseen by the lookers on. Draw the end tight till it reaches B. Pass the end A under C and D strings, which cross the palm, drop the whole string off the left hand and pull gently and steadily the end A with the right hand, and the string pulls out straight.
