To proceed with the trick: Holding your hands in this position, (Fig. 18,) you must request one of the spectators to cut through the tape at x, but just as he is about to do so, you must quickly lower your hands two or three inches, and then raise them again. This movement will conceal the following operation. You drop the part (B) of the tape held in your right hand, and at the same moment pick up with that hand the other tape marked C.
This will bring the portion of tape from C to D, so that it now becomes the transverse tape, substituted in place of the tape marked x, and your young friend will then cut it—instead of the original tape marked x—without being aware that he is so doing.
When the tape has been cut through, you can put your hands near together, allowing the two ends of the little piece of the tape—C D—to be seen, but concealing from the spectators that you have hold of two pieces, one a very long one, and the other only about five inches long. You can then say: “Now I have to join these two ends, and to restore the tape whole as at first.” You then turn the little piece C D round the piece y, which is in your left hand, and you tie a knot with the ends of that little piece. You must not tie this knot very tight, and after you have tied it, you drop the other end of the tape altogether out of your right hand.
Fig. 19.
The appearance which the tapes will then have is represented in Fig. 19. That is, you will seem to hold the equally divided pieces of the long tape joined in a knot at y, whereas in fact it is only the small end piece C D, tied round the middle of the long tape, which you hold between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand. Exhibit the knot to the company, and say: “I admit that this knot hardly looks like a perfect restoration; I must employ my best art to get rid of its unsightly appearance.”
Ask some one to hold, at about three yards’ distance, the end marked with small d, retaining hold of the centre—at y—in your left hand, which quite covers the knot. Tell your friend to wind the tape round his hand, and, while pretending to show him how to do this, by winding the part which you hold round your left hand, slide away towards your right the loose knot under your right hand. Then, holding out the end of the tape A towards another friend, to hold at about three yards’ distance to the right, slip from off the long tape the little movable knot under your right hand, just before he takes hold of this end of the tape. Conceal in your right hand the little end-piece of tape, until you can get rid of it into your pocket, or into any unobserved spot. Blow upon your left hand, which is supposed still to cover the knot, saying: “Knot, begone!—Restore!” Take up your left hand, and show the tape to be free from any knot, or join from one end of it to the other.
[CHAPTER VI.]
ON THE CONTINUITY OF TRICKS.
It may be useful now to invite attention to the theory of preserving a continuity in the development of tricks, where circumstances admit of this being done. Sundry displays of legerdemain admit of being adroitly linked together; and I shall endeavor to explain why such an harmonious continuity is preferable to an unconnected series of isolated tricks; for when once a novice gets a clear perception of this principle, he will be able, according to his own special taste, to produce a pleasing variety of combinations in his experiments. He will thus rise above being a mere copyist of the methods used by others, and so will give a zest and freshness to his performances.