d spades, and another set of hearts and
diamonds. Shuffle well each set, and even let them be shuffled by the
spectators. Then request a person to draw a card from one of the sets,
and another person to draw one from the second set.

You now take a set in each hand, presenting them to the two persons,
requesting them to replace the drawn cards. You must pretend to present
to each person the set from which he drew his card, but in reality you
present the red set to the person who drew the black card, and the black
set to the person who drew the red card.

Each person having replaced his card, you get each set shuffled. Then
you take them in hand, and by running them over you easily find the red
card amongst the black, and the black card amongst the red.

Of course you will have prepared the sets beforehand, and take care to
alter the arrangement as soon as possible after the trick. But you can
prepare the pack in the presence of others without their detecting it.
Distribute the cards by dealing according to the two colours; take them
up, and having placed the red set a little projecting over the black,
set them down, and, pretending to cut them, separate the sets.

6. Twenty cards being arranged upon a table, a person thinks of two, and
you undertake to guess them.

Lay out twenty cards of any kind, two by two,

| c | i | c | o | s |
| d | e | d | i | t |
| t | u | m | u | s |
| n | e | m | o | n |

and request a party to think of two in a line; that is, one of the ten
sets formed by the twenty cards. This done you take up the sets in the
order in which they lie, and place them in rows according to the letters
of the words. You may use a diagram like the preceding, but as the words
are easily retained it had better be dispensed with, distributing the
cards on the table just as though upon the diagram, which will make the
trick more puzzling and extraordinary. Proceed as follows:--Place the
cards two by two on similar letters: thus, place the two cards of the
first set on the two d's in dedit; the two cards of the second set on
the two i's of cicos and dedit; the two of the third set on the two c's,
and so on with the ten sets.

All the letters of the words being thus covered, ask the party who has
thought of the cards to tell you in which lines these cards are. If both
are in the first line (cicos), they must be those on the two c's; if
they are both in the second line, they cover the d'