“Now, ladies and gentlemen, what shall the cards do for you, the addition, or the subtraction sum? It is all the same to me. The addition? Very good. They can’t talk, so they will call another card from the pack to give you the answer. Yes, here we have it. Five—and two—are—seven.”
As he names each card, he produces it from the flower-pot, the third being the double-faced card, shown as the seven.
“Now I can hear what some of you are thinking. Oh, yes! I often hear what people think. You are thinking that if you had said subtraction instead of addition, I should have been in what is popularly called a hole. But you are mistaken. Now we will ask the cards to do the subtraction sum. The seven will go back to the pack, and send another card in its place.” He drops all three cards back into the flower-pot, and brings them up as before, save that this time the trick card is made to face the other way. “Five—less two—are three! Quod erat demonstrandum, as our old friend Euclid used to say when he had just floored a new poser. As the cards seem to be in a good humour, we will try them once more, and see if we can get them to do a little multiplication.” (He drops the three cards into the flower-pot, as before, but this time lets the fake card fall into the pocket.) “Five times—two—are ‘ten.’” (Showing the two cards and the ten, in that order.)
“Now I will ask some gentleman to see that these three cards really belong to the pack. The three and seven went back to it as soon as they were done with. The flower-pot, as you see, is again empty.” (He shows by lifting it that apparently it is so.)
If the first choice of the audience is for subtraction the order of production will naturally be varied accordingly.
[6] To endeavor to take all five tricks in the game of Napoleon.
THOSE NAUGHTY KNAVES
This item may be described, if preferred, as “Knavish Tricks.”
Requirements. Card mat loaded with knaves of spades, hearts and diamonds, taken from the pack in use. Knave of clubs on top of pack.