Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Before returning to the audience, you prepare it as follows:--Taking it in your right hand in the ordinary manner, you draw down with the other hand the pierced card, and slide the card endways into the receptacle on the hilt. The elastic, which is now stretched to double its ordinary length, will pull at the card pretty tightly; but you retain it in position by pressing on the face of the card with the second and third fingers of the hand that grasps the hilt. Having done this, you return to the audience, taking care so to stand that the back of the hand that holds the sword shall be towards them. When the cards are flung in the air, as already described, you make a lunge among them, and at the same moment relax the pressure of the fingers on the pierced card. The elastic, being thus released, flies rapidly back to its original position, and carries the moveable tip, and with it the card, to the end of the blade, by which the card appears to be transfixed, as in Fig. 41. The movement of the sword in the lunge, coupled with that of the falling cards, completely covers the rapid flight of the pierced card from hilt to point. To get the card off the sword, pull it down the blade, and tear it roughly off. When you have taken off the card, drop the point of the sword, and hand the card at once to the drawer for examination. This serves to divert attention, not only from the sword itself, but also from the cards scattered on the ground, among which the one actually drawn still remains.