The “dupe” seats himself at the seer’s table. He wants his fortune told. Complying with the lady’s or gentleman’s request, the old faker mixes the cards about and deals four of them face down. Assuming that it is a lady, she turns up any one to suit her fancy and writes her name across it while the merchant in future’s back is turned. She puts it face down among the others and moves them about to lose the card, even unto herself.

The magician (for he is no better) returns to the table, picks up the group of four, puts them on top of the deck, gives it a square cut, and leaves it in the center. At his request, the lady puts her finger tips on the deck in order to “establish a liaison with the future”. Gibbering some sort of mumbo-jumbo the magus spread the cards across the table with a sweep. In the center are seen four cards, three of them face up, and in between is one card face down.

He cuts the four to the top, picks them up separately, naming each, except for the face down card which simply is called a “reversed card”. It is placed on the deck for the time being. The faker never touches the deck again.

The three face up cards are dealt in a row and the lady receives her fortune from each. She is reminded that one remains, face down. She puts her forefinger upon it and the card is termed one “of destiny”. The prognosticator de luxe gives his most startling revelations and names the card itself. The lady turns it over to find her own card bearing the signature she put there. She keeps it, of course, and it is hoped that the believer goes forth to pass on the good word about your powers. Your powers because you can do it.

It only takes a deck of cards, a pencil or pen, a fairly deceptive double lift, and all the showmanship you can spare. Beforehand, put four cards on top of the deck that you know. I use the four aces. They are easier than any of the others to remember in your regular suit order.

Mark them with pencil dots on their backs. One has a dot in the upper left, and lower right corners. The next has a dot in the lower left and upper right corners.

The third has dots in the center of each end. The fourth has no dots at all. Put these dotted cards on top of the deck in order so that you know which is which when they are dealt out face down in a row. Don’t do any shuffling — it looks too much like the regular card trickster stuff — just jab them around a bit but keep the top four in place. When she picks up one of the four you immediately know what it is without bothering with the marks. She writes her name across its face and then mixes it with the others while your back is turned.

Having the rest of the deck in your hands you take advantage of this position to turn face up the two bottom cards, then put the top card on bottom, and lastly put the next top card on bottom face up. From the bottom up the deck reads, a face up card, a face down card, and then two face up cards. Don’t forget that reversed card on the bottom — don’t flash it.

You return to the table and put the deck down. Be certain to have emphasized at the start that she look at one card only. You pick up the four face down cards and mix them around as you ask if she picked just the one and wrote upon it. Knowing what card she took you have only to watch your dots and get this card on top of the four. Then the group is put on top of the deck and the pack is cut.

Call for the spirits, visualize mists of time, and when the contacts are completed with the unknown spaces, spread the deck across the table and there are four cards, three face up and in between them, one face down. It all appears quite natural and you let the spectator draw her own conclusions!

Cut these four cards to the top. Pick up the first one, name it and drop on the table. Do the same with the second card and drop it on top of the first. Now pick up the reversed card, without saying too much about it and place it on top of the other two. While the lady’s gaze is holding to this one, secure a break under the next two top cards on the deck, and place these two, as one, on top of the rest, naming the last face up card as you do so.

Pick up the pile, transfer the top face up card to the bottom, and say “We’ll put this face down card on the deck for a moment”. Do so, making a double lift again, and two cards go onto the deck which is pushed near her, and not touched again by you.

The three face up cards are now dealt on the table and the fortune given, saving some neat bit of double-talk for the finish. The dime pamphlets on card fortune telling give you lots of material.

Finally you let loose with talk to entrance and then name the card she took and marked. She, herself, picks the card from the top of the pack where it was placed, and keeps it as a souvenir of a most unusual and edifying occasion.

And you? If you don’t get a nice tip each time you spend so much effort to please, it’s no one else’s fault but your own!