As a variation of the preceding experiment, obtain a flat-bottomed tumbler or glass goblet (but the bottom must be flat), a pocket handkerchief and a coin. These are to be seen by everybody present.
Procure a watch glass, or a round piece of glass like an eye-glass. This is not to be shown.
Now show to the bystanders that you place the coin (say a fifty-cent piece, for example) in the middle of the handkerchief, and, throwing back two sides of the latter, point out again that the coin is still in its place.
To show that there is no deception ask someone to hold the coin in the handkerchief.
Then place underneath it a glass containing a little water and call out, “Hey, Presto! Fly!”
The person lets go of the coin and the noise of its falling to the bottom of the glass is plainly heard.
You take up the handkerchief, and every one is astonished at the disappearance of the coin, which you can produce from another person’s hat.
Really the trick is very simple. For the coin supposed to be held in the handkerchief you must dexterously substitute the watch glass or eye glass. The person holding it, of course, declares he has the coin fast.