The Three Magical Parties
Offer the long card to a person, that he may draw it, and replace it
in any part of the pack he pleases. Make the pass, and bring that
card to the top. Next divide the pack in three parcels, putting the
long card in the middle heap. You then ask the person which of the
three heaps his card shall be in. He will, probably, say the middle;
in which case you immediately show it to him. But if he say either of
the others, you take all the cards in your hand, placing the parcel he
has named over the other two, and observing to put your little finger
between that and the middle heap, at the top of which is the card he
drew. You then ask at what number in that heap he will have his card
appear. If, for example, he say the sixth, you tell down five cards
from the top of the pack, and then, dexterously making the pass, you
bring the long card to the top, and tell it down as the sixth.