Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

PASS VII. TO PASS THREE BALLS IN SUCCESSION UPWARDS THROUGH THE TABLE INTO ONE OF THE CUPS.--You concluded the last Pass (we will suppose the reader to represent for the time being the performer) by lifting two cups together to show three balls beneath the undermost. Holding two cups in the left hand, you turn them over, mouth upwards. Taking with the right hand that which is now uppermost, you place it on the table in the ordinary position, still retaining the other, in which, unknown to the spectators, a fourth ball still remains. You continue, “Ladies and gentlemen, you may possibly imagine that there is some trick or sleight-of-hand in what I have shown you, but I am now about to perform an experiment in which that solution is clearly inadmissible. I propose to pass these three balls, one after the other, through the solid table into this empty goblet. Pray watch me carefully. I take away one of the balls” (you take in the right hand one of the three on the table), “and hold it beneath the table, thus. My left hand, as you will observe, is perfectly empty. I have only to say, ‘Pass!’” (You palm the ball in the right hand, at the same time giving a gentle tap with one finger against the under surface of the table, and immediately bring up the hand, taking care, of course, to keep its outer side towards the spectators; then gently shake the cup which you hold in the left hand, and turn the ball out upon the table.) “Here it is, you see. Now I will put it back in the cup” (you pick up the ball with the right hand, and drop it into the cup, secretly letting fall with it the palmed ball), “and take another ball.” You repeat the process, and show two balls in the cup; then again (each time dropping in the palmed ball), and show three, retaining the fourth ball, still palmed, in your right hand.