Offer the long card to a person, that he may draw it, and replace it in any part of the pack he pleases. Make the pass, and bring that card to the top. Next divide the pack in three parcels, putting the long card in the middle heap. You then ask the person which of the three heaps his card shall be in. He will, probably, say the middle; in which case you immediately show it to him. But if he say either of the others, you take all the cards in your hand, placing the parcel he has named over the other two, and observing to put your little finger between that and the middle heap, at the top of which is the card he drew. You then ask at what number in that heap he will have his card appear. If, for example, he say the sixth, you tell down five cards from the top of the pack, and then, dexterously making the pass, you bring the long card to the top, and tell it down as the sixth.
The Magic Vase.
Fig. 20.
Construct a vase of wood, or pasteboard, see Fig. 20. On the inside let there be five divisions; two of them, c d, to be large enough to admit a pack of cards each; and the other three, e f g, only large enough to contain a single card. Place this vase on a bracket, L, which is fastened to the partition M. Fix a silken thread at H, the other end of which passes down the division d, and, over the pulley I, runs along the bracket L, and goes out behind the partition M.
Take three cards from the piquet pack, and place one of them in each of the divisions e f g, making the silk thread or line go under each of them. In the division c put the remainder of the pack.
You then get another pack of cards, at the top of which are to be three cards, the same as those in the three small divisions: and, making the pass, bring them to the middle of the pack. Let them be drawn by three persons; let them shuffle all the cards; after which place the pack in the division d, and tell the parties that the cards they drew will rise at their command, separately, from the vase.
A confederate behind the partition then gently drawing the line, the three cards will then gradually appear from the vase; then taking the cards from c, you show that those three are gone from the pack.
The vase must be placed so high that the company cannot see the inside.