Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

236, and makes a gentle rubbing motion with the thumb upon the rings, and then lets fall one of them, which naturally drops to the position shown in Fig. 237. He now hands these two rings for examination. The spectators seek for some joint or opening, but none is found; and meanwhile the performer transfers the next ring (the “key”) to his right hand, keeping the opening under the thumb. He now takes back with the left hand the two single rings, immediately transferring one of them to the right hand, and with the ball of the thumb presses it through the opening in the key ring, into which it falls, with exactly the same effect as the apparent joining of the two linked rings a moment before. Again he separates and again joins the two rings. The second single ring is now made to pass through in like manner, making the combination shown in Fig. 238. The performer remarks, “We now have three joined together. Here are three more, as you see (shaking those in the left hand), all solid and separate, and yet at my will they will join like the others.” Making a rubbing motion with the thumb as before, he drops two of the three, one by one, from the hand, when they will appear as a chain of three.