Then he gave the cards another shuffle, and in doing it one of them slipped up his sleeve unobserved by any one.
There was really nothing wonderful about this, since there was a thin piece of elastic attached to the card, and the moment it was released it left the pack.
As might be supposed, it was the jack of hearts.
But Hop had another jack of hearts, as he needed it to carry out the trick.
He kept this one concealed in his hand and passed the deck to Roche, saying:
"You pickee outee um jack of hearts and me allee samee showee how me makee fly away."
The man quickly looked over the cards and found that the jack of hearts was not among them.
"I reckon you took it when no one was looking," he said, with a smile. "That is not much of a trick; I could do that myself."
"Me no takee," declared the Celestial, putting on a look of surprise. "Maybe allee samee dlop on um floor."
He got up from his chair, and then, dropping upon his hands and knees, began looking around on the floor under the table.