The sequel may vary, according to the fancy of the performer, and his skill in ball-conjuring. For lack of a more effective dénouement, the trick may be brought to a finish as follows:
Secretly getting the shell ball into his right hand, and picking up the red ball with the left, the performer proceeds:
“Well, here we have three balls, one red and two white. To prevent ill feeling between them, I think we had better make them all the same colour: and as the white are in the majority, we will have them all white. It is quite easy, if you know how to do it. You have only to breathe on the ball, give it a roll round in the hand to take the colour off, and there you are.”
After breathing on the ball, you bring the right hand containing the shell over it, and exhibit it, shell in front. You then transfer it in the same condition, to the opposite hand. Then pick up one of the two white balls with the right hand, transfer it to the left and show the two side by side. Then pick up and add the third ball, in so doing letting the red ball fall into the right hand, and while calling attention to the three in the opposite hand, drop it into the profonde. You then bring up the shell over one or other of the two solid white balls, thereby transforming the three into two. Drop the solid from the shell into the right hand, making the two into one; finally causing the disappearance of this last after the usual manner.
If the reader (being an expert) is provided with a spare red ball and red shell, he may offer the choice as to which shall be the colour of all three, finally causing their disappearance after the manner above described, or his own version thereof.
WHERE IS IT?
This is another of the tricks dependent on the novel application of the black art principle.
For programme purposes the trick may, if preferred, be entitled “The Erratic Shilling.” Its effect may be broadly described as follows:
A marked shilling, lent by some member of the company, after being professedly magnetised or mesmerised by rubbing, is laid upon a black velvet mat and covered with a playing card, face down. Two other cards are laid (also faces down), one on each side of the first, at a few inches distance from it, and the audience are given to understand that the rubbing has imparted to the coin the power to travel from card to card at command, and indeed sometimes of its own accord. When the card which covered the coin is lifted, this is found to be the case. The shilling is no longer where first seen, but is found to have placed itself under one of the other two cards. The spectators may be invited to say under which of the cards they would like the coin to pass, when it will place itself accordingly. The coin may be identified by the owner in the course of the trick, as well as at its close.