Royal Road to Card Magic The

have found the correct card and are prepared to reveal it. Instead of doing so immediately, you pretend perplexity and run through the cards, occasionally removing one and returning it, then moving a few cards here and there, as if in search of the card. Actually you are arranging the cards in readiness for use.
    Most short arrangements can be made in a matter of seconds. With the cards properly arranged, you bring the trick in hand to its proper conclusion and are ready to perform the feat requiring the arrangement.
    After the arrangement has been made and before the trick is introduced, always shuffle the cards thoroughly by the overhand method, controlling the arrangement in the manner that has been fully described.
    TRICKS WITH ARRANGEMENTS
    The Selective Touch
    'Jimmy Valentine' made popular the notion that one's fingertips could be made so sensitive that they would acquire abnormal qualities, and this idea was seized on to dress the presentation of a number of conjuring tricks. In this trick a shuffled pack is placed in your pocket, and the suit and value of a chosen card are matched by removing cards from the pack, presumably because of the sensitivity of the fingertips.
    In preparation, secretly place the ace of clubs, two of hearts, four of spades and eight of diamonds with the backs outermost in your upper right waistcoat pocket. The eight of diamonds is nearest your body.
    1. Have someone shuffle the deck, remove any card, note it and place it face upwards on the table.
    2. Open your jacket and have him place the remainder of the pack in your inner jacket pocket. See that he places it back outermost.
    3. Discourse on the sensitivity of your fingertips. 'We all know that it is possible to read raised figures with the fingertips, but it is not so generally known that it is possible to read printing in the same manner,' you say. 'I frankly admit that I am unable to read fine print, such as that found in a magazine or newspaper; but I can read the large indexes of the cards, both the number and the suit.'
    4. 'I'll try it with your card.' Turn towards your left, open your jacket a little with your right hand and slide your left hand into the inner jacket pocket, moving the fingers so that the movement shows through the cloth. Remove your hand from the pocket and remove one of the cards from your waistcoat pocket, the suit of which matches that of the spectator's card. Knowing the sequence of the cards makes this an easy matter. Bring it out as if from your inner jacket pocket, saying, 'Here is a card of the same suit!'
    5. Again reach under the jacket. 'Now to see if I can match the value of your card.' Remove your hand and rub it briskly on your right jacket sleeve, then plunge it under the jacket again. Fumble about in the inner jacket pocket, finally removing the card or cards necessary to match the value of the card - for example, for an ace bring forth the ace; for a three, the ace and two; for a four, the ace and three; and so on. Any number can be matched with the four cards - the jack, queen and king being considered as eleven, twelve and thirteen.
    If the suit card you have already removed is needed to match the value, remove the other card or cards and place these on the suit card, arriving at the proper value in this manner. For example, let us say that the spectator has the seven of spades. Bring forth the four of spades and show it, a spade, as the suit card. Now remove the ace and two, placing them beside the four, pointing out that the three values total seven.
    A little experiment will show you that any card can be matched by using the four cards. The trick is simple but when given a good presentation it is, like other simple things, very entertaining.
    A Future in Cards
    This feat is made possible by a simple arrangement. A person thinks of a card and you instantly produce it, thus proving by conjuror's logic that you have read his mind.
    1. Take a shuffled pack and spread the top cards as if to have one chosen. Secretly count the cards and, when you have spread fifteen, cut these off the pack, saying that instead of having one selected, you will do a much more difficult trick.
    2. Place the remainder of the pack to one side and remove any club, any heart, any spade and any two diamonds from the fifteen - keeping them in this order, which can be remembered easily if you think of the consonants in the word
CHaSeD
. Hold the five cards in your right hand, retaining the other ten cards in your