Royal Road to Card Magic The

gesture as to which it may be.'
    Pick up the right-hand packet face downwards in your left hand in position for the glide. Turn it so that the face card can be seen by everyone, glance at it and say, 'This is not your card.' Turn the packet face downwards, draw out the face card and place it face downwards at your right on the table. Drop the remainder of the packet on the right-hand packet of the two on the table.
    5. Pick up this combined packet in the same manner, lift it to show the face card, look at it yourself and say, 'Nor is this your card.' Draw off the card and lay it face downwards beside the first tabled card.
    6. Place the combined packet on the one remaining on the table, pick up all the cards, holding them ready for the glide, lift the pack and show the face card. It is the chosen card, but you keep a poker face and say as you execute the glide and remove the next card,
    'Apparently you lack confidence in yourself, for that is not your card either.'
    In spite of your previous instructions, someone may try to interrupt you at this point, for everyone sees that it is the chosen card. If so, take no notice and at once draw out the next card above the glided card and use it as a pointer. Touch each of the three tabled cards in turn counting. 'One, two, three cards and none of them yours.' Replace the pointer card on the face of the deck and lift the deck so that all can see it. This subtle move not only conceals the chosen card but finally convinces the onlookers that the chosen card has been placed on the table.
    7. Turn to another spectator and ask him to name a number, say between five and ten. 'The chosen card will infallibly be at that number,' you say. Suppose seven is named. Still holding the deck face downwards, draw out the face card and deal it face upwards on the table, counting 'One.' Execute the glide and draw out the card above it, deal it on the table and count 'Two.' Continue to draw out and deal indifferent cards to the count of 'Six.' Then draw out the glided card and hold it face downwards, counting 'Seven.'
    'Here is your card,' you say confidently. 'Will you now for the first time name your card?'
    8. The spectator names the card you hold. Here is where your ability to act convincingly will be of prime importance. Pretend to be taken aback upon hearing the card named. Repeat its name and glance covertly at the card on the table which the spectators believe to be the chosen card.
    Usually at this point someone, with no little glee, will tell you that the chosen card is on the table and that you have made a mistake. Occasionally, because of courtesy, no one will fall into the trap. In either case, after a moment you brighten and say, 'That's right. Here's the card!' Turn over the card you hold and show that it is the required card.
    It is at this point that the trick is most enjoyable. You will find invariably that someone will reach for the tabled card, which should be, but is not, the chosen card. The laughter and puzzlement which this action provokes will repay you a hundredfold for the slight effort you have made in mastering the trick.
    The Observation Test
    The glide, as we have shown, is a useful sleight with which many effects can be had. This one enables you to vanish one card and make another appear in its place.
    1. Shuffle the pack, have a card drawn and noted, and when it is replaced control it to the face of the pack by means of the overhand shuffle control.
    2. Turn the pack with the face towards yourself, so that no one can see the cards, and run through them, removing the four two-spots and placing them at the face of the pack in black, red, black, red order. 'This is a test of your powers of observation,' you explain. 'I shall use the four two-spots to make the test.'
    3. Remove the five cards at the face of the pack without showing how many you take. Turn them face downwards and hold them in the left hand in readiness for the glide. The top card is the chosen card and under it are the four two-spots.
    4. 'I shall ask you to remember the sequence of the colours,' you continue. Remove the bottom card with the right hand and deal it face upwards on the table, calling its colour, 'Red.'
    5. Deal the card now at the bottom face upwards on the first card in the same way. 'Black.'
    6. Glide back the card now at the bottom. Remove the two cards above it as one by grasping them at the outer end between the right thumb, above, and the fingers, below. As they are drawn from the