pages: latestmagicbeing00hoff.pdf, 103
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| latestmagicbeing00hoff.pdf | 103 | THE MASCOT COIN BOX 87 "I don't want even to touch the coin myself till the very last moment, so I will ask you meanwhile to put it in this little box. I believe it was built for a watch-case, but as I don't happen to need one, I use it to hold my money, when I have any, or when I can get somebody to lend me some." The box is held open bookwise, as above men- tioned, and closed according to circumstances, in one or the other of the two ways described. "I will now ask some gentleman to take charge of the coin in the box. Who will do so? You will, Sir? Thank you. But stay! I think I heard somebody say (it was only said in a whisper but I heard it) 'I don't believe the halfcrown is in the box.' It is very sad to find people so suspicious, especially when I take such pains to prove that there is 'no deception.' But the gentleman was wrong, you see." (He opens box, and shows the substitute coin.) "Here it is. Take it out, sir, and keep it in your own hands till I ask you for it again." During the delivery of the patter the borrowed coin has been extracted, and the coin exhibited in the box and handed for safe-keeping is, of course, the substitute. The box, as being no longer needed, is laid without remark upon the table, and the trick proceeds, after whatever may have been its intended fashion. |