The Twenty-Sixth Card

We have considered the use of key cards in close proximity to a chosen card; now we should like to tell you of a most ingenious application of the key card principle–that of the remote key.

1. You must know the name of the card twenty-sixth from the top of a pack of fifty-two cards. Let us say that this card is the four of spades. Place the pack before a spectator at A. Have him cut off about two-thirds of the pack and place these at B. Finally, have him cut off the upper half of B and place these cards at C. The four of spades, your key card, is somewhere in the middle of packet B.

2. Now instruct him to take packet C, and shuffle it well, then look at and remember its top card, replacing the packet at C. "Please remember that you first shuffled the cards and then looked at the top card. There is no possible way in which I can know the card of which you are thinking."

3. Next have him pick up the packet at A, shuffle it well, and place this on packet C. "Your card is lost," you point, out. "I give you my word I do not know what it is or where it is at this moment."

4. Finally have him pick up the combined packet A-C and place it on B, then give the assembled pack one or two complete cuts.

5. Take the cards and run through them with their faces towards yourself until you come to the four of spades, your key card. Calling this card number one, count to the left until you arrive at the twenty- sixth card above it. Should your count take you to the top card before you reach the twenty-sixth card, continue the count from the bottom card. This card, the one twenty-sixth above your key card, will be the spectator's card.

6. Cut the cards at this point, taking all the cards above the spectator's card in your left hand and the remainder in your right hand, holding the hands widely separated. Glance from one packet to the other, shake your head a little, doubtfully, and move a step or so forward as you say, "I'll try to find it another way." At the same moment bring your two hands together, placing the cards in the fight hand above those in the left and in this manner placing the spectator's card at the top of the pack.

7. Take the pack in your right hand, holding it at the ends between the fingers and the thumb, at the same time pushing the spectator's card at the top an inch off the pack to the right. "Please name your card." Raise your right hand and toss the pack into the left hand. As it falls, air pressure against the protruding top card will cause it to turn over so that when the pack drops into the left hand, the card will be face upwards. "There it is!" you exclaim. The effect is that you threw the deck into the left hand and the spectator's selected card somehow popped, face upwards, to the top.