Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

[A] The cards of the right-hand packet are darkened in the figure for the better distinguishing of the two packets, though there would, of course, be no such difference of shade in the original. Fifth Method. (To retain the whole pack in a pre-arranged order.)--Make the pass so as to bring the lower half of the pack uppermost. Take the pack in the right hand, keeping the two portions of the pack separated by the little finger of that hand. Hold the cards face downwards a few inches from the table, and let fall, by five or six at a time, those cards which now form the lower half of the pack. You should so arrange that these cards form four little heaps, falling in the order indicated by the accompanying figure (Fig. 14). Thus the bottom cards must fall at 1, the next lowest at 2, the next (comprising all that remain of the lower packet) at 3, and the remaining cards (being the whole of the upper part) at 4. Now (with the left hand) quickly place packet 1 on packet 4, and (with the right hand) packet 2 on packet 1, and finally (with the left hand) packet 3 on the top of all, when the cards will occupy precisely the same relative positions as at first. The use of the two hands alternately, coupled with the rapidity of the performer, gives to his motions an appearance of carelessness which effectually baffles the spectators, and prevents their suspecting that the heaps are re-arranged in any determinate order.