Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Having taken the ball in the left hand, you hold it at the ends of the fingers behind the table, as near the top as possible consistently with its being out of sight of the spectators. Then saying, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, I must ask for your very closest attention,” you raise C with the right hand, and with the same movement lower it for a moment behind the table, and over the ball in the left hand, which remains in the cup of its own accord. All eyes go instinctively to the ball on the table, whose increased size is a new phenomenon, and not one in a hundred will, in this first moment of surprise, think of watching the cup, which is naturally supposed to have, for the moment, concluded its share of the trick. You replace the cup on the table lightly, so as not to loosen the ball, meanwhile getting ready another ball in the left hand, and repeat the operation with B. With A you make a slight variation in your mode of procedure. Taking a third ball in your left hand, you hold it as before, but, as if through carelessness or clumsiness, allow it to be seen for a moment above the edge of the table.