FIG. 2.
This smallest box is most conspicuously nailed, see Fig. 1, but on one side the two top nails are mere dummies, not going through, all but the heads being cut off. The two bottom nails are short, and can easily be pulled partly out, while the two centre ones act as pivots on which the side swings, as shown in Fig. 2. This box is filled loosely with some wool. The lid is put down, the bottom nails of the loose side are pulled partly out, the top is pressed in, when the side will open at the bottom. A wad of paper is put in to prevent it closing, other wads are put at the sides so that the loose nails may not be accidentally pushed in, and finally the box is bound with tape and sealed.
FIG. 3.
This box is placed, with the open side uppermost, in No. 2, in which it loosely fits, and that one is closed, bound up, and sealed. It, in turn, is placed in No. 3, which is also bound with tapes and sealed. The whole package, which somewhat resembles Fig. 3, is stood on a table before beginning the trick.
When the borrowed watch has been wrapped in red, white, or blue tissue-paper, as the audience may select, and bound with a colored ribbon, also chosen, the performer pretends to wrap it in the handkerchief, but really folds the handkerchief around the prepared corner, and gives it to some one to hold. The borrowed watch he slips into a pocket which he has sewed to the back of the right leg of his trousers in such place that his hand can readily reach it.
As the dummy watch is ticking, the one who holds the handkerchief will not suspect anything. The performer, approaching him, catches hold of the handkerchief and gives it a shake. "Go!" he cries, and as nothing falls to the floor, the watch is supposed to have vanished.
The sealed box is now shown, and some one is asked to cut the tapes. The second box is taken out, and as it is securely bound, everything appears right. Now comes the critical part. The performer takes the two boxes to his table, and while going there gets hold of the watch with his right hand, and sets it on the table back of the larger box, which conceals it. The second box he places on top of the first, cuts the tapes of No. 2, and as he throws back the lid, lifts the watch with his right hand, and at almost the same moment drops it into the open side of the smallest box. To lift this box out, and at the same time to press the bottom nails into place is easy. The box can now be shown, the tapes cut, and the watch returned to be identified by the owner.