INSTRUMENTOS DE RECOLECCIÓN DE INFORMACIÓN

tewart placed three stars after this variation, indicating it was his favourite of the lot. Instead of setting mates twenty-six cards apart, thoroughly shuffle your deck.

Then write the name of the twenty-seventh card on the face of the top card and the name of the top card on the face of the twenty-seventh card. Now place the top card on the bottom of the pack and repeat this process with the new top and twenty-seventh cards. Carry on until all cards have the name of their 'handwritten mate' on their faces.

Follow the directions for Incantation Number Three. When the spectator looks at the card he has selected from the spread, it will bear the name of another card - the card in his pocket! And the card he initially chose and concealed will, somehow, bear the name of the card he apparently freely selected from the long line of cards on the table.

I'm sure some readers will be preparing this one.

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Ora clew

New Tops, January 1967

ome of the things I have published were worked out as the articles were written; I have to experiment with an idea while it is hot and malleable, otherwise it becomes set and finished. This one is an example of developing a burgeoning concept to a final form which pleases me.

"Since I had sent it along some time before it appeared in the January 1967 New Tops, I had forgotten all about this trick. The editor of Ibidem [Howard Lyons] said in issue #32 (luly 1967) that Oraclew ' ... should turn out to be one of the standard card tricks to use when entertainment and mystery are both intended, rather than just the latter.' Slaight wrote me in February 1968: 'I agree with Lyons: Oraclew is outstanding.' I am pleased with Oraclew, and pleased that Phil Goldstein said: 'I can remember a lengthy period during the late 1960s when I would not go out of my house without a pack of cards set to perform Oraclew.'"

-0-Stewart added: "This title is, of course, an Oracle Clew (or 'clue' on this side of the ocean)."

The deck is handed to a volunteer and you never touch it again until the routine is concluded. But he thinks of a number and you discover what it is. You predict the card that will be at that position before he thinks of his number. He freely selects a card and you perform a form of remote control so it is the last card when he spells out his name by dealing one card for each letter.

In preparation, remove the queen of hearts and seal it in an envelope. Print QUEEN OF HEARTS on a blank-faced card with a matching back design. Use a felt-nib pen and print as large as possible. We will call it our Prediction Card. Place it on top of the deck.

Arrange ten cards in numerical order from ace to ten, ace at the face of the packet.

Place them on top of the Prediction Card.

Each volunteer's name will require its own particular treatment. There must be at least

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ten letters in the name. Suppose you are going to present this for Stephen Minch - a twelve-letter name. At this point your stock of cards totals eleven. Shift any two cards to the top of the deck to position the Prediction Card thirteenth from the top. This number will vary: It is determined by using the number of letters in your volunteer's name plus 1.

(If an eleven-letter name, you would therefore shift one card to the top. If ten, no card is moved. My wife's name is Emmanuelle Gattuso, so seven cards would be added to bring the Prediction Card to eighteenth position.) In the case here, remember the number 13.

To perform, place the deck and sealed envelope on the table. Step back and direct the volunteer in what be is to do. He cuts the deck in two face-down piles. He thinks of a number between 1 and 10; say he thinks of 7. Picking up what was the bottom half of the deck, he secretly removes seven cards. The talon is assembled by replacing the portion cut off, the original top half, back on top.

Looking over the seven cards in his hand, he selects one and places it on top of the talon, say the ace of dubs. He then completes the deck by placing his six cards on top.

He may shuffle them first if he wishes.

At this point you may stress you do not know the number of which he is thinking, the name of his card or its position. Quite truthfully, you do not know the location of any card.

He deals the cards from the top of the deck one at a time face down on the table. You secretly count as he does so. Stop him when he deals the thirteenth card. It is placed to one side face down without either of you seeing it. The value of this card will always be the same as the number which he mentally selected, in this case 7. Obviously, you always deal the same number as the original position of the Prediction Card.

He ·next counts on to the number of which he is thinking. In our example it is 7 so he deals seven cards more, one at a time, on the cards already dealt.

This seventh card is placed by the first isolated card without its face being seen. This will be the Prediction Card.

The talon is assembled by placing the dealt packet on top of the larger packet. He then

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deals one card for each letter as he spells his name, in our example STEPHEN MINCH.

The card on the final letter, the twelfth card, is placed face down beside the first two. It will be his card, in our example the ace of clubs.

Have him name his number and then turn over the first card. You stopped his dealing on a card of that value. Have him name his card and then turn over the appropriate card to reveal it. And it was at the number in the deck which he freely selected and he alone knew.

Ask him to open the envelope and reveal the prediction within. Instead of a message, he will be surprised to find the queen of hearts from the deck he has been using. Wh.en the last card is turned over, the name of the sealed card is disclosed.

Dollars and