Water Wizardry Part 3

{hold five of clubs, then wash off one club at a time until all gone} _SPECIAL CARDS REQUIRED_

Fig. 6]

To begin with, the request for the loan of a pack of cards is not quite what it seems. You arrange with a kind friend in the audience to "find"

a pack of cards when you ask for one, and that person has no difficulty in "finding" the pack which you have prepared for the trick and placed in some convenient hiding-place in the house.

The disappearance of the first pip is easily managed: You dip a finger into the water, shake it, and rub the corner with a dry finger. Then shake the pack as though you were trying to dry the card; this action enables you to turn the pack, in a natural way, with its face towards the floor and thus the audience do not see that the pip is still on the card. Then you take your handkerchief from your pocket, and in so doing secretly take out a five of clubs with one spot missing behind the handkerchief. It is not a difficult matter, under cover of the handkerchief and while pretending to dab the corner of the card, to slip the prepared card on the face of the pack. Having done that, show your hands and the handkerchief to your audience, to let them see that you have not merely slipped the pip off the card, but have apparently dissolved it in water and removed all trace of it.

Directly after you have shown this card on the bottom of the pack turn the pack over in the hand, so that the blank corner is now at the top.

Now if you bend the third and little fingers of the left hand slightly they will conceal the pip at that corner, but before you bend the fingers let the audience see the card. Now you have to exchange that card for another with only three pips on it, the pips being diagonally across the card.

This prepared card is at the back of the pack. While you are talking bring the right hand to the front of the pack, push up the back card with the first finger of the left hand, extend the fingers of the right hand and push the card to the tips of the fingers of the right hand, at the same time slide the card down on to the face of the pack.

This movement takes a long time to explain in print, but it is done in the fraction of a second. All you apparently do is to bring the right hand up to the pack to square up the cards.

Directly you have the "three card" at the face of the pack, bend the third and little fingers slightly and thus hide the place where the missing pip ought to be. The card is now apparently the same card which the audience saw before--a five spot with one spot missing.

This time, when you dip a finger into the water and pretend to wash away a spot you must work rather quickly, and as you take away the tips of the third and little fingers to enable you to wash away the pip which is supposed to be there, you must bring the right hand over the spot at once, otherwise the audience will see that the spot is not there! This time you have the advantage of being able to show the blank corner directly you take away your right hand. Take out your handkerchief, dab the corner with it and return it to your pocket.

Now tell your audience that if you wish to rub away two spots at once you have to use both hands. Take the cards in the right hand for a moment while you dip a finger of the left hand into the water. In the act of pa.s.sing the cards from one hand to the other you slide the next card from the back to the front; this card has one pip in the centre.

(If your cards have no index corners you can use the ace for this card.)

While you dip the finger of the left hand into the water you must hold the pack with the face card downwards; take it, in the same position, in the left hand, while you dip a finger of the right hand into the water.

Then rub first one corner with the left hand and then the other corner with the right hand and bring up the pack with the card facing the audience, but hold the pack in both hands with the hands at the corners (top and bottom) as though you were merely hiding the pips there.

Someone is sure to tell you to "take away your hands," and, apparently reluctantly, you do so, disclosing the card with the single pip in the centre. The laugh will then be in your favour, and you take advantage of this temporary diversion to slip the next card from the back to the front of the pack. Then hold the pack by the sides in the right hand with the fingers right over the centre, and the audience will think that the single pip is still there, being hidden by the fingers.

To conclude the trick you can say that your fingers are damp enough to manage one pip and you pretend to rub it off the face of the card, which is thus blank.

Take this card away in your right hand, and offer it to someone on your left hand for examination, taking care to turn the pack down with its face to the floor as you remove the blank card, otherwise the audience will see the next card, which is the one-pip card.

The object of handing the blank card to someone on your left is to enable you to turn in that direction in a natural way, because directly you have turned you drop the pack you are holding in the left-hand pocket of your coat (or dinner jacket) and take from it another pack, from which the five of clubs has been abstracted. This is important because a juvenile audience is merciless to an amateur conjurer as a rule and someone is sure to say: "Let us have a look at the cards."

Don't be in too great a hurry to hand them out for examination; always "play" with the younger members of your audience when you get the chance to do so. Of course, if the children are so exceedingly well behaved that they do not ask to see the cards you must suggest that "perhaps you would like to have a look at the cards," but I hope for your sake that the children are not of that kind. An audience of very prim and proper children may be easy to a conjurer, because they do not attempt to catch him out, but in another sense they are very difficult because it is by no means easy to engage and hold their attention. I much prefer an audience of children who are quite natural and who are therefore always eager to pounce upon any little weak point--or point which they think is weak--in a trick.

The preparation of the trick cards required for this trick is not a difficult matter. If expense is no object the best plan is to buy several packs of cards, with the backs all alike. A blank card usually goes with each pack. If the cards have no index corners you need prepare only two trick cards--one with four spots on it and one with three. To get the spots, put a ten-spot card in cold water and let it soak until you can peel away the face of it. Dry it on clean blotting paper. Then cut out the spots very neatly and paste them on two of the blank cards, taking care to get the pips at the corners in the right positions.

The other method of preparing the cards (presuming that you do not wish to invest in several packs) is to float off the backs of a couple of cards, dry them, paste white paper on them and then stick pips on the paper. The drawback to this method is that the paper will probably not match the paper on the faces of the other cards in the pack.

CHAPTER III

THE HYDROSTATIC TUBE

This trick is one of the many masterpieces of Mr. David Devant, and I am greatly indebted to him for his permission to include a full description of it in this book and to give his method of working the trick.

It was Mr. Devant's custom to follow this trick with the "Wine and Water," and he had an object in doing so, for the preparations for the second trick a.s.sisted him in performing the first.

On a tray on the table were four tumblers, the second and fourth of which (counting from the performer's left hand) were inverted. Behind the gla.s.ses there was a large gla.s.s lamp chimney with a piece of paper tucked into one end, and a finger bowl, with two spouts, filled with water, and a long hat pin.

The effect of the trick--to the audience--was as follows. The performer, having shown that the tube was not prepared in any way, closed one end with a piece of paper (half the piece which had been tucked into the tube at the commencement of the trick). He then filled the tube with water and placed the other piece of paper on the top. He then removed his hand from the lower piece and the water remained in the tube. He explained that there was no trick about that, the pressure of the air kept the paper in its place and so prevented the water from rus.h.i.+ng out.

He then removed the paper from the lower end of the tube and still the water remained inside it. Then he took the paper from the top of the tube, and still the water remained in the tube. Having replaced the papers he picked up the large hat pin and held the tube over the bowl.

He pierced the upper paper with the pin and held it there for a moment.

Directly he withdrew the pin with the paper impaled on it the water fell out of the tube into the bowl, carrying the lower paper with it. The performer then showed once more that the tube was free from preparation by rattling the pin inside it, and he at once went on with the "Wine and Water" trick, using the water in the finger-bowl for that trick.

And now for the explanation. Two small discs of gla.s.s which fitted over the ends of the tube were required. The ends of the tube were ground perfectly level and the gla.s.s discs were made with a "shoulder" (or sunk edge), so that when once they were placed on the ends of the tube they could not be moved laterally. The edges of these gla.s.s discs were also ground perfectly flat and were made to fit exactly on the ends of the tube.

One of the gla.s.s discs had a hole in the centre, and this hole was filled up, just before the commencement of the trick, with a little piece of moistened soap. If the soap were prepared too long beforehand it would become crumbly and dry; it has to be soft and damp.

The other gla.s.s disc was not prepared in any way. Before the commencement of the trick the disc with the hole in it was placed on the top of the fourth tumbler--and therefore to the performer's right. The other disc was laid on the top of the second tumbler in the row of four.

The piece of paper tucked into the gla.s.s chimney was half of a double sheet of note-paper. (Tear a double sheet from side to side.)

And now for the actual performance.

Begin by taking up the gla.s.s chimney, removing the paper, picking up the hat pin and rattling it inside the chimney--thus showing that it is not prepared in any way for the trick.

Put the chimney down, pick up the paper and tear it in halves. (The object of having half a double sheet is to enable the conjurer to tear it easily; the crease is ready for him.) The action of tearing the paper is proof that there is no trickery in the paper.

Place one piece of paper on the top of the fourth tumbler (and therefore over the disc with the hole in it). Dip the other piece of paper into the gla.s.s bowl, shake it a little, and lay it on the top of the second tumbler. Take the piece from the fourth tumbler, wet it in the same way, and replace it on the top of the fourth tumbler.

Thus both pieces of paper are now wet and are over the two gla.s.s discs.

Pick up the piece of paper on the second tumbler, secretly taking with it the gla.s.s disc (which, of course, is under the paper) and place it on the top of the tube, taking great care not to let the gla.s.s disc "talk"

against the top of the chimney; the audience must not hear the slightest "c.h.i.n.k" of gla.s.s knocking against gla.s.s.

Now turn the tube over, holding the disc and paper in place, with the second, third and little fingers underneath the paper, which should be moulded round the end of the chimney. Fill the chimney with water, and see that it is really full. Put the bowl down and pick up the other paper, secretly getting the disc under it, and place the disc with the paper over it on the top of the chimney.

Mould the paper round the top of the chimney and turn the chimney over, thus bringing the gla.s.s disc with the hole in it at the bottom of the chimney. Press on the disc and then slightly relax the pressure; if it is firmly in place you will feel that it is "sucking" and you can go on to the first part of the mystery.

Take your hand away from the lower end and the paper will naturally remain in position. Then, holding the tube by the middle with the right hand, peel the paper away slowly from the bottom of the tube and put the paper between the lips for a moment while you take the top paper away. In doing this you make use of an excellent little piece of showmans.h.i.+p; you pretend to be very nervous.

The tube is now held perfectly still for a second or two, and as the audience know that it is full of water and cannot see that there is anything either at the top or bottom of the tube, the effect is very mysterious.

Put the paper which was on the top under the lower end, pressing it well round that end, and take the other piece from the lips and mould it firmly round the top. Then invert the chimney, thus bringing the disc with the hole in it to the top again. Again press the papers well round both ends of the chimney.

Remove the lower paper once more, and still the water remains in the chimney. At this point in the trick Mr. Devant had an excellent line of patter which I hope he will forgive me for giving away; it always brought a round of laughter. "Supported entirely by voluntary contributions."

Replace the paper on the lower end of the chimney, and pick up the hat pin. Place the pin in the top paper; of course, the pin pa.s.ses through the little plug of soap in the gla.s.s disc. As you take the pin out again the air naturally gets in and the water begins to fall. (It will be understood, of course, that at this stage of the trick you hold the chimney over the bowl.) Directly you feel the water is moving put the pin back into its place; this is a very important "move."

The water rushes out, naturally taking the disc and paper at the lower end with it. The pin is sticking through the top paper and therefore through the top disc. Remove the pin, taking the disc and paper impaled on it, and push the paper off into the bowl; while you do this you can lift the first paper slightly out of the bowl, so that the top disc sinks to the bottom on the top of the one already there. Then remove both papers and hold up the bowl of water. All trace of the method you employed for bringing about this very mysterious effect is now concealed, for the gla.s.s discs cannot be seen at the bottom of the bowl.

You pick up the pin and once more rattle it in the gla.s.s chimney to show that you have nothing inside it, and then you go on to the next trick.

I have heard conjurers say that if they get one good trick out of a book they have received excellent value for their money. If that be true--and I, for one, certainly think it is--then, thanks to Mr. Devant, purchasers of this book have no cause for complaint, for I know of no finer trick with water than "The Hydrostatic Tube."

One little helpful hint. When the conjurer is about to put the pin through the top paper he may have a slight difficulty in finding the exact place for it. A little stain on the plug of soap will help him to find the right place at once.

The trick needs a steady hand, and the conjurer must not know the meaning of "nerves," but if he will see that the discs fit the ends of the gla.s.s chimney perfectly and will carry out these directions he need have no fear of any mishap.