Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Should the card in the first instance prove to be among the non-designated cards, you will proceed as last directed; but do not in this case repeat the trick. TO ALLOW A PERSON SECRETLY TO THINK OF A CARD, AND, EVEN BEFORE SUCH CARD IS NAMED, TO SELECT IT FROM THE PACK, AND PLACE IT SINGLY UPON THE TABLE.--This trick is on the same principle, and performed in a great measure by the same means, as that last described. You invite a person to think of a card (without naming it). When he has done so, you offer the pack to another person to shuffle, and finally to a third person to cut. Then, selecting any one card from the pack, you walk to your table, and, without showing what it is, place it face downwards on the table, retaining the rest of the pack in your left hand. Then, addressing the person who was requested to think of a card, you say, “The card which I have just placed on the table is the one you thought of. Will you be good enough to name it?” We will suppose that the card thought of was the ace of spades. You say, as in the last trick, “Allow me to show you, in the first place, that the ace of spades is no longer in the pack.” Coming forward to the audience, and rapidly running over the cards, you catch sight of the ace of spades, and slip it behind the rest. Having shown that it is, apparently, not in the pack, you turn the cards over (when the ace will, of course, be on the top), and palm it. Leaving the pack with the audience, you advance to your table, and pick up the card on the table with the same hand in which the ace of spades is already palmed. Draw away the card towards the back of the table, and, as it reaches the edge, drop it on the servante, and produce the ace of spades as being the card just picked up. The trick requires a little practice, but, if well executed, the illusion is perfect.