For this trick, a certain number of the cards are dealt from the pack, and laid face upward on the table in three separate piles. Before beginning the distribution of the cards, one of the company is asked to select mentally a particular card.
If twenty-one is the number of cards, there will necessarily be seven cards in each of the three heaps.
When the twenty-one cards have been thus arranged in three piles on the table, you must ask the person who has chosen a card to tell in which heap it is. Then, you gather up the three piles of cards, but in doing so care must be taken to place the pile containing the selected card between the other two piles.
You next distribute again the twenty one cards, face upward on the table in three piles, exactly as before. You then request the chooser of the card to indicate the particular pile in which his card is now lying. On receiving this information, you again gather up the cards from the table, being careful as before to place the pile containing the card between the other two piles.
You must now distribute the cards for the third time precisely as the other two times. But, while doing so, you should note the center card in each one of the three piles-that is to say, the fourth card in each pile.
One of the three must be the selected card.
For the last time, you ask the chooser of the card to point out the particular heap in which it is lying. Immediately upon his doing so, you will, announce the card, without even examining the pile. Or, if your memory of the three center cards in the piles is in the least uncertain, you may glance at the various cards in the heap before making the announcement.
It is only necessary to remember that the center or fourth card in the pile must be the one selected after this third distribution.
Any other number of cards may be used instead of twenty-one, on condition that it be odd and a multiple of three.
The selected card after three distributions, into the three piles will be the central one of the packet. Thus, if fifteen cards are used, the heaps will contain five cards each, and the central card will be the third. If thirty-three cards are used, each pile will contain eleven cards, and the center card will be the sixth; and similarly for any other odd number.