You may then put on a rather offended look, and say: “Ah, sir! ah! I did not think you would do so! You have taken one out, I fear.” Approaching your right hand to his sleeve, shake the sleeve, and let the one cent, which you have in your own hand, drop audibly into the saucer. It will raise a laugh against the holder of the hat. You can say: “Excuse me, I only made it appear that you had taken one. However, you see that the original money is now doubled.”
TRICK 8.—The injured handkerchief restored.
PREPARATION.
Have a dime of your own wrapped in the centre of a piece of cambric about five or six inches in diameter, the ends falling down loose. Conceal these in the palm of your left hand.
Borrow a marked dime from any of the spectators, and a white cambric handkerchief. Throw the handkerchief spread out over your left palm, (holding under the handkerchief your own dime wrapped in the small piece of cambric.)
Openly place the borrowed dime on the centre of the spread-out handkerchief. Keeping hold of that dime, jerk the ends of the handkerchief over, so as to fall loose down from the lower side of your left hand. Draw out from between your thumb and fingers (that is from the upper side of your left hand) about two inches of the smaller piece of cambric, containing your own dime. The spectators will naturally conceive the two pieces of cambric you hold in that hand to be merely the cambric handkerchief.
Call any of the spectators forward, and request him to mark off with his knife the portion of the piece of cambric which holds your own dime, and whisper to him to cut it completely off, and to let the dime drop on the table. The spectators will believe that he has cut a hole in the handkerchief itself, and that the dime falling out is the one you recently borrowed, whereas it is in fact the other piece of cambric that has been cut, and the borrowed coin remains still wrapped up in the handkerchief.
Pretend to blame the person who cut the two inches off, saying: “Dear me, sir, what have you done? You have quite destroyed this nice handkerchief. Well, I hope, madam, you will pardon the mistake, if I manage by magic to restore to you your handkerchief in perfect order, and I request you to allow me to try to do so.” Carefully holding in the candle the edges of the cambric, (both of the part cut off and of the portion from which it was cut,) and letting the real handkerchief hang down from the same hand, pretend with a conjuring wand to weld together the edges of the cambric when they get hot, as a blacksmith welds metals together. You can prevent the flame from reaching the real handkerchief by tightly pressing your fingers. Then exclaim: “Oh, where is the dime?” and while picking it up from the table, get quietly rid of the pieces of cambric with their burnt edges into a hat or some corner unseen by the audience.
Holding up the dime which you had just lifted from the table say: “But to complete my trick I must replace this dime in the centre of the restored handkerchief, whence it was cut out.”
Make the Pass 1, appearing to pass it into the centre of the handkerchief, but retaining it in your hand, and afterwards secretly pocket it. The handkerchief has already the borrowed dime in it. Say to the handkerchief: “Change—restore!” and unfolding it, show the borrowed coin in it. Shake out the handkerchief and show it is all sound and right, and restore it with thanks, as well as the borrowed dime, to the owners.