Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

You make the pass to bring them to the top, and palm them, and then immediately hand the pack to be shuffled by one of the company. This being done, you replace them on the top of the pack, and, spreading the cards, and appearing to reflect a moment, pick out by the backs as many cards as there have been persons who drew (i.e., four) including among them the two cards a and b. Exhibiting the four cards, you ask each drawer to say, without naming his card, whether his card is among them. The reply is, of course, in the affirmative. Each person who drew, seeing his own card among those shown, naturally assumes that the remaining cards are those of the other drawers; and the remainder of the audience, finding the drawers satisfied, are fully convinced that the cards shown are the four which were drawn. You now replace the cards in different parts of the pack, placing the two actually drawn in the middle, and secretly make the pass to bring them to the top. Then, spreading the cards, you invite another person to draw, which you allow him to do wherever he chooses. When he has done so, you request him to name aloud his card, which we will call c. Holding the card aloft, you ask each of the former drawers in succession, “Is this your card?” To which each answers, “No.”