Royal Road to Card Magic The

cards with their backs squarely to the spectators, preventing them from noting how many cards you hold in either hand.
    4. Say, 'Kindly replace your card where you took it from.' Extend the left hand a little and have the card replaced at the top of the packet. Drop the cards held in the right hand on top of all and square the pack meticulously.
    The spectators believe the card is lost, for they think it is returned to the haphazard position from which it was taken. You know it is the thirteenth card from the top and are ready to use it for whatever trick you have in mind.
    TRICKS WITH THE HINDU SHUFFLE
    All Change Here
    In this effective feat the Hindu shuffle is used to show that apparently every card in the deck is the same. It is an artifice that is useful in several other ways.
    1. Have the deck shuffled by a spectator. Instruct him to remove one card and then pass the deck to a second person. Let this person also remove and then return the deck to you.
    2. Have the selected cards returned to the deck and control them to the top by means of the Hindu shuffle so that the top card is the second spectator's card.
    3. Hold the deck in your left hand and with the right fingers and thumb at the ends remove the top half, at the same time making the backslip and thus placing the second card on the top of the lower half in the left hand. Place this packet aside for the time being.
    4. Ask the first man to name a number between, say, five and fifteen. Suppose he calls ten. Have him name his card, say, the five of hearts. Place the packet you hold in your left hand and count off ten cards, pushing them off one by one with your left thumb, and taking them one on top of the other in the right hand. On reaching the tenth card, turn your right hand with the back upwards, and slap the counted cards face upwards on to the cards still in your left hand. 'There it is!' you exclaim. 'The tenth card, the five of hearts!' Immediately remove these face-upwards cards and spread them, showing the five of hearts with nine cards above it. Close the spread, place the packet underneath the cards in your left hand and place all face downwards on the table.
    5. Pick up the other packet, and in the course of an overhand shuffle place one card above the second spectator's card at the top. Address him, saying, 'Will you kindly name another number between five and fifteen?' As you say this push the two top cards off the pack to the right a little, and in squaring the pack again secure a left little finger break under these cards.
    Let us say that the spectator names the number eight. Remove the top card and turn it face upwards, counting 'One' and placing it squarely on the pack. Square the deck at the ends, grasping the two top cards at the ends between the right thumb and middle finger, moving them inwards so that they protrude over the inner end for about 25 mm (1 in). Immediately draw out the card that is under these two - the third card - and turn it over inwards, bringing it face upwards, and lay it on the first two, counting 'Two.'
    Remove the next card - the fourth card - and turn it face upwards and lay it on the first three, counting 'Three'. Continue counting cards in this manner until you have turned one less than the number named - in our example, seven. Under these, and hidden by them, is the chosen card, which is face downwards.
    'I want you to be satisfied that my count is accurate,' you say. Push the protruding cards squarely on the pack and slowly deal the cards that are face upwards at the top, counting them. 'Seven cards,' you point out. Tap the chosen card, which is now the top face-down card. 'This is the eighth card, the card at your number. Will you name your card please?'
    'The jack of clubs,' let us assume he says. Slowly turn the card face upwards, showing his card.
    6. Drop this card, face upwards, on the seven cards which lie face upwards on the table. Pick them all up and place them at the bottom of the deck, thus placing the jack of clubs at the bottom.
    7. 'Now really,' you continue, 'I do not as a rule explain how these feats are done. But this one is so delightfully simple that I will show it to you, and you will be able to have some fun with it yourselves.' Place the packet you hold to one side and pick up the first packet, holding it in position for the Hindu shuffle. 'The fact is that all these cards are fives of hearts, hence it made no difference to me what number you called. Look!' Begin a Hindu shuffle by