Place the sixteen court cards and aces together anywhere in the pack. Then, offer the pack to be cut, with the purpose of separating this assembly of the high cards. You must take care, however, that only a simple or whist cut is used: the pack must not be shuffled. Any, number of persons may thus cut the deck any number of times.
On receiving back the deck you should secretly notice the bottom card. If it be one of the high cards, you should yourself give a final cut to the pack, declaring that it is merely for luck.
It is well to allow one of the spectators to run over the cards and thus to disclose the fact that the assembly of high cards remains absolutely undisturbed by the numerous cuts.
As a matter of fact, it is quite impossible by cutting to separate such a collection of cards in the pack, except by bringing part to the top and part to the bottom, and such separation will be ended by the next cut, which must bring the two parts together. It is against this possibility of separation that you need to take precaution by observing the bottom card, and then adding a cut if required. But only rarely will this be necessary. The trick is simple, but it will be found baffling to most spectators, who are totally unable to understand the ineffectiveness of the cut in this instance.