10. THE SURPRISE.
When you have discovered a card, the following plan will make a striking termination to the trick. Get the card to the bottom of the pack, and tell one of the spectators to hold the cards by one corner as tightly as he can. Give them a sharp rap with your finger,—not with your hand,—and all the cards will be struck out of his hold, and fall on the floor, except the bottom card, which will remain between his finger and thumb. It has a rather more dashing effect, if you put the chosen card at the top, and strike them upwards, when the whole pack will fly about the room, like a flock of butterflies, only leaving the top card in the person’s grasp.
11. THE REVOLUTION.
Another neat way of finishing a trick is as follows. Get the card to the top of the pack; and taking care that all the cards are even, drop the pack on the floor, taking care just as you let go, to slip the top card a little off the rest of the pack. In falling, the resistance of the air will turn the card over, and it will rest with its face upwards on the top of the pack.
12. THE SLIPPED CARD.
Ascertain the bottom card of the pack; hold the cards in your left hand, with their faces downwards. Place your right hand upon them, and with your right fore-finger slide them slowly over each other, asking some one to stop any card he chooses, by putting his finger upon it. When he has done so, open the pack at that card, but while opening it, make the pass, and bring the bottom card under the one touched. Hold up the cards, and ask the chooser to be sure of his card; hand all the cards to him, and let him shuffle as much as he chooses. Afterwards discover the card in any manner that you prefer. The following is a good plan.
13. THE NAILED CARD.
Take a flat-headed nail, and file it down until its point is as sharp as a needle, and the head quite flat. The nail should be about half an inch long, or even shorter if anything. Pass the nail through the centre of any card,—say the ace of spades,—and conceal it in your left hand.
Take another pack of cards, get the ace of spades to the bottom, and perform the preceding trick. When the cards are returned, shuffle them about, and exchange the pierced card for the other. Put the pierced card at the bottom of the pack, and throw the cards violently against a door, when the nail will be driven in by the pressure of the other cards against its head, and the chosen card will be seen nailed to the door. The nail should be put through the face of card, so that when the others fall on the floor, it remains facing the spectators.