" He said it was an
artifice by means of which low, unscrupulous men, frequenters of
race-meetings and such like haunts, swindled foolish young fellows
out of their money. He said it was a very simple trick to do: it
all depended on the quickness of the hand. It was the quickness of
the hand deceived the eye.
He said he would show us the imposture so that we might be warned
against it, and not be taken in by it; and he fetched Uncle's pack
of cards from the tea-caddy, and, selecting three cards from the
pack, two plain cards and one picture card, sat down on the
hearthrug, and explained to us what he was going to do.
He said: "Now I shall take these three cards in my hand--so--and
let you all see them. And then I shall quietly lay them down on
the rug, with the backs uppermost, and ask you to pick out the
picture card. And you'll think you know which one it is." And he
did it.
Old Mr. Coombes, who is also one of our churchwardens, said it was
the middle card.
"You fancy you saw it," said our curate, smiling.
"I don't 'fancy' anything at all about it," replied Mr. Coombes, "I
tell you it's the middle card. I'll bet you half a dollar it's the
middle card."
"There you are, that's just what I was explaining to you," said our
curate, turning to the rest of us; "that's the way these foolish
young fellows that I was speaking of are lured on to lose their
money.
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