Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Again disengaging the lower ring, passing one of the single rings from the left hand to the right, and laying down on the table all the rings remaining in that hand (the group of three uppermost) he joins the single ring to the key ring, thus making a chain of four, of which the key ring is second from the top. These he lays, still linked, upon the table, and takes up from the heap already lying there the three uppermost (which, it will be remembered, are the group of three), and holding them for a moment together in the hand, lets them fall one by one to form a second chain of three. Taking the next ring of the heap (the second key ring) in his disengaged hand, he steps forward, and requests some one to take hold of either of the three rings, and to pull against him, in order to prove their solidity. This ascertained, he passes the upper ring of the three into the hand which already holds the key ring, and links it into the key ring, thus forming a second chain of four, of which in this case the key is the uppermost. Linking the lowermost into the key ring, he shows the rings as in Fig. 240. Once more unlinking the lower ring, so that the four again appear as a single chain, he proceeds (apparently) to link all the twelve together. This is effected as follows:-- Taking two of the single rings, the performer links them into the key ring of the chain which he holds. He next links one of these same single rings into the key ring of the other chain, thus linking the two chains together at a distance of one ring from the end of the chain. He thus has ten rings joined. He now takes the two chains one in each hand by the ends remotest from the point of juncture, immediately after picking up and holding (one in each hand) the two remaining single rings. These, of course, he does not and cannot link with the rings adjoining them, but the audience seeing that all the rest are linked together, readily believe that these also form part of the chain. The precise arrangement of the rings will be readily understood from an inspection of Fig. 244.[M]