Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

When you raise the third cup, you move it behind the table as before, and make a feint of introducing the ball which the spectators have just seen, but really let it drop on the servante, and replace the cup empty. A murmur from the audience will quickly apprise you that they have, as they imagine, found you out. Looking as innocent as you can, you inquire what is the matter, and are informed that you were seen to introduce a ball into the cup. “I beg your pardon,” you reply, lifting up, however, not A, which you have just replaced, but C, which is the farthest remote from it. There is really a ball in this cup, but having been pressed in, and fitting tightly, it does not fall. The audience, seeing you raise the wrong cup, are more and more confirmed in their suspicion. “Not that one, the other,” they exclaim. You next raise B, the ball in which also does not fall, for the reason already stated. “No, no,” the audience shout, “the other cup, the end one.” “You are really very obstinate, gentlemen,” you reply, “but pray satisfy yourselves,” turning over A as you speak, and showing the inside, which is manifestly empty, and your critics rapidly subside. Meanwhile, you drop your left hand to the servante, and secretly take from it two similar balls.