One of my favorite “story” tricks for the past seven years, since 1929, is the one I’m describing here together with the patter angle, which is probably the really interesting part of it all. It’s the first time the trick has seen print, although back around the time of its put-together I sold three private copies.

First I’ll give the effect, then the method, and finally the story. But, as I’ve said before, the story is the dressy, and all important part. A card is chosen, returned, and the deck shuffled by a spectator. Running through the cards face out, the performer removes the four Aces. These are shown separately and singly. The spectator cuts the deck at the center, and the four Aces are placed face up at the center, and the cut replaced. The deck is not even picked from the table, but given a bit of riffling, for effect, with one hand. The deck is spread face down, and in the center, of course, are the four face up aces, but between them now is a face down card. The fan of five is removed. The spectator names the chosen card, the fan is turned over, and the card, mysteriously located by the aces, is the same.

So much for the effect without the story. You’ll have to take cards in hand to get the working in a practical manner. The card is selected and returned. It is brought to the top or bottom by your favorite method. If to the bottom, glimpse it, cut the deck, and give it to the spectator for shuffling. If to top, do the same. At this point, you need to have only knowledge of the card. I vary, when possible, by forcing any card, then handing the deck to the spectator for the return and shuffling of the cards.

After the shuffle, take the deck, and with the patter about finding four cards that will represent prominent men, run through them, cutting the deck at the first ace to bring it to the bottom. At this time make the remark that you will use the aces for people. Now go right through the deck looking for the other three aces and the chosen card you know. Each time you reach one, snap it loudly to the bottom, or face of the pack. Thus, the watchers hear you apparently get only four cards to the face of the deck. Now take these bottom five in a bunch from the deck which is placed face down to one side for the moment. Hold the packet face down and as you remark that you will use the four aces and introduce them as people, shift one or two from top to bottom of the packet to bring the chosen card to the top or back of the bunch. Now hold the packet face out in your left hand, with the fingers at the bottom side, the thumb at the top side, and the forefinger at the outer end.

With the second finger of the right hand, slide off, towards you, the face ace, and put it on the table or floor face up. Do the same with the second and third. Count them as one, two three and four as you do so. The last card however, is grasped at the ends with the right second finger and thumb and put on the others. You have thus counted and shown four aces. Pick up the packet and hold face down in your let hand, all fingers at one side, and thumb and its base at the other. Now remark that you will introduce the people in person. Right thumb slides off the top card at the front end, and turns it over end for end face up on the packet and squared. Mention who it is, and the right second finger and thumb pick this card off by the ends, and place it down again face up.

Do the same thing with the next card, also naming it, according to the patter. Turn the third ace over same as usual, but this time take hold of the packet with the right second finger and thumb as before at ends, and the left forefinger slides the bottom card out a bit on the left side, whereupon the right hand places its card (with the chosen card face down underneath) onto the pile. Lastly the single card in the left hand is turned over, named, and placed on the pile. The spectator cuts off half of the face down deck, and these squared aces are placed face up in the middle, and cut replaced. The deck is now riffled, without removing it from the table, and when spread, an odd face down card is seen between the center aces. The five are removed in a fan, and when the spectator names the identity of the murderer, you turn the fan over, and the right card flashes into view. Now go on with the patter, and you’ll see, with cards in hand, how it all fits together and makes a smooth running story to cover all action.

“This is a story of a crime; a tale concerned with criminals and the law. The deck is to represent the underworld, and in it, there are 52 law makers and law breakers all trying to outwit each other. First, I want you to remove one card, and look at that card as a murderer of the worst type. A man who is the cause of a great manhunt. No one is to know the identity of this much wanted man but yourself. After you’ve seen his face, drop him back into the underworld. This shuffling is to show the shake-up in the police department after present officials have failed to capture the criminal. Perhaps someone else had better mix them too, though. You, sir, give them a shuffle, to prove that he’s really lost in the dark alleys of iniquity, and not being protected by politics.

At this time, I want to introduce four great men in our story. These gentlemen are always trying to do their bit towards wiping out crime, and this will be a test of what they can do. I use the four aces to represent these men, (when an Ace happens to be a selected card, use the four Kings) and shall introduce them to you personally. Here are the aces, one, two, three and four. Introducing them singly, we have the ace of — (here, always use the same order of names, no matter what the order of aces), who is the Mayor of the metropolis in which we are living. Next we have the ace of — who is the District Attorney. Then comes the ace of —, who is the Commissioner of Police, and lastly, the ace of —, who represents a reporter from the –(localize the name of the paper)–, for one must know what is going on.

If Mr — will now lift the lid from off the underworld for a moment, I’ll place these four just men, with apologies to Edgar Wallace, in the middle. This action of riffling is supposed to represent great activity in police circles, while the manhunt is on and the criminal is being pursued. The drag-net is, of course, spread over the city, so we, in turn, spread the deck over the table, and here, deep in the underworld, we find the four men with a suspect between the District Attorney and Commissioner of Police. Who it may be, or how he got there, we don’t know, but they’ve picked him up somewhere. And now, Mr –, will you name, for the first time, the murderer ? The —— ? Look, they’ve got him !“