envelope, by post, to be opened at the performance. The form of prediction is up to the individual, as there is no trickery involved—you just write the name of any card that comes to mind. Next we come to the pack of cards: ordinary and unprepared, which is given to the victim to shuffleto his heart’s content. Now we begin working to a pattern and according to what happens, so we vary the pattern. Remember, we have made a secret prediction; the card is some- where in the shuffled pack. The problem is to make the victim select that card himself, in such a way that he will feel sure that his choice was entirely free, then when he reads the prediction, we have produced out effect. The strength of this effect will depend to a great extent on how well the card is forced. Here we can make use of every scrap of know- ledge of card magic. We also take advantage of any luck that might come our way—but we do not depend on chance. The plot must be played as if we are quite certain what our actions are to be. Each action should be fairly slow and deliberate, as if to emphasise its fairness. Actually this also gives time for us to weigh up the circumstances. First we take back the shuffled pack and turn it over slowly. Maybe we have a miracle and the card facing us is the one predicted. If this is so we leave the pack face up, as if this is exactly what was intended, and play up the situation by saying that the victim could have shuffled any card to that position—then have him read out the prediction. Certainly that is pure luck, but we have used it to advantage. So it's not the card—well our turning action was slow and deliber- ate, so we also secretly sight the bottom card (of the face up pack) as the pack is turning and continue turning until the pack is face down again. The whole action has appeared as if we were displaying the pack and ensuring that it is perfectly squared. Maybe our luck is in and the card we sighted (now on top of the face down pack) is the card we want. Place the pack on the table, have the victim turn over the top card, then read the prediction etc. If neither the top nor bottom cards are what we need, then we hold the pack on our upturned palm and ask the victim to cut the pack and complete the cut. This gives us two more chances, as when we turn the pack over once more we see the new card which comes face up and sight the new bottom card. That's four chances, each of which could produce a near miracle- Page 78