We must imagine the cards divided into eight divisions perpendicularly, and four horizontally, as in [figure 23]. The former will indicate the value of the card, the latter the suit. The mark is placed where each of these divisions intersect one another. The above is the way the cheat is performed, and practice does the rest.
I must be allowed to decline mentioning the method, by which these mysterious marks are made on the cards. My object being, as I have already stated, more than once, to expose the tricks of sharpers, but not to show how they are done. Suffice it to say, that when looked at closely, these spots are invisible; but when viewed from afar, the reflection of a strong light makes the card shine, but leaves the spot dull.
At first sight, it would seem a difficult task to distinguish one card from another, by an isolated spot on the back of it. However, if my readers will attend to what I have told them, and look at the example given in figure 23, they will see that it does not belong to the second, nor the fourth perpendicular division; and by the same rule, they will observe, that the spot is in the second horizontal division, and represents, therefore, the queen of diamonds.
Fig. 23.
From all this, it is evident that a swindler plays and stakes—I will not say his honour, but his liberty, against fortune; and that, by reason of the importance of the stake, he ought to have devoted the most serious attention to an art, on which all his future depends.
[CHAPTER IX.]
THE CHAPLET, OR ROSARY.
The rosary is a particular arrangement of the cards, according to certain words in a sentence, which is learnt by heart. In other words, it is a sort of mnemonics, or artificial memory, to enable people to cheat at play. There are several sorts of "chapelets," more or less ingenious. The best are those which recall to one's mind a feeling, a thought, or even only an amusing combination.