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Prepare two cards, say an eight of hearts and a seven of spades, by blackening all their edges save one of the narrow ends,[4] and backing each with velvet matching the mat. Lay the two cards so treated face down with the white edge towards yourself on the mat at some little distance apart, or preferably on separate mats. Force corresponding cards on two members of the company and deliver an oration to something like the following effect:

“We hear people talk sometimes about the quickness of the hand deceiving the eye. I suppose such a thing must be possible, or nobody would have thought of it, but it seems to me that if it did anything of the kind, either the hand must be extra quick, or the eye extra slow. I know I should be afraid to attempt anything of that sort myself, but if you are a magician of the right sort you have no need to do so, for you can deceive the eye without any quickness at all. I will prove it to you by means of these two cards which have been chosen. Please give me one of them. I don’t mind which.”

We will suppose that the card handed up is the eight of hearts.

“Notice please what card this is; the eight of hearts. You can’t possibly mistake it for any other card, can you? I will turn it down here on the table. And now for the other card.” (It is held up that all may see it.) “This one, you see, is the seven of spades. No mistake about that, either! I will lay that one here.” The card is in each case laid upon the velvet-covered card of the opposite kind.

“Please don’t forget which is which. There has been no quickness of the hand so far, has there? Now I am going to make these two cards change places.” (You touch each with the wand.) “Presto, change!” (Picking up the upper and lower cards exactly one upon the other you show what was a moment previously the eight of hearts, but which now appears to be the seven of spades.) “One card has changed, you see. And now for the other.” (You show the other pair after the same fashion.) “And here we have the eight of hearts. I will now order them to change back again.” You lay both pairs again face down.

“Now I again give the cards a touch with my wand, and say ‘Right about! Change!’ and now, you see” (showing the faces of the original cards), “they have returned to their original positions.

“Now you will realise, if you think about the matter, that those two cards couldn’t in any natural way change places without your seeing them do it, neither could the one change into the other. But this is where magic comes in. What I really did was to hypnotise you a little so as to make you fancy, when I told the cards to change, that the eight of hearts was the seven of spades, and that the seven of spades was the eight of hearts. It’s quite simple, when you know it, and you can see for yourselves that the quickness of the hand has had nothing to do with the matter. For my own part I like to do things slowly; the more slowly the better, and then you can all see how it’s done.”

The trick is simple enough; but it will test the performer’s expertness as to neatness of execution. He must be careful in the first place to put each of the drawn cards as exactly as possible on the opposite velvet-backed card; and in picking up two cards together he should frame them, so to speak, between the middle finger and thumb at top and bottom, and the first and third fingers at the sides. Held in this manner they rest squarely one upon the other and there is little fear of their “duplicity” (or “duplexity”) being perceived. In the act of again turning the double card down the upper one should be partially drawn off the one below it; this facilitating the picking of it up alone a few moments later.

An illustration of the use of the same device in a somewhat different form will be found in the item next described, and in the trick entitled “Where is it?” post. Other ways of using it will suggest themselves to any reader of an inventive turn.