Provide a round box, the size of a large snuff-box, and likewise eight
other boxes, which will go easily into each other, letting the least of
them be of the size to hold a shilling. Observe that all these boxes
must shut so freely that they may all be closed at once, by the covers
accurately fitting within each other.
Previously to commencing your performance, fit the boxes within each
other, and place them in a table drawer at another part of the room.
You also fit the covers in the same manner, and lay them by the side of
the boxes; you likewise provide a silk handkerchief, into one corner of
which a shilling is sewed.
You now commence your operations, by borrowing a shilling, desiring the
lender to mark it, that it may not be changed. Take this shilling in
your right hand, and the handkerchief in your left, pretending to place
the shilling in the centre of the handkerchief; instead of which, you
put the corner of the handkerchief in which a shilling was sewed, as
previously described, concealing the borrowed shilling in your right
hand. You then desire the person to feel that the shilling is there,
and tell him to hold it tight.
You now go to the drawer, and placing the borrowed shilling in the
smallest of the boxes, you put on all the covers, by taking them in the
centre between the fore-finger and thumb, to prevent their separation,
and fit them on, by carefully sliding them along, and then pressing
them down.
Having thus closed your boxes, you produce what appears to be a single
box, and lay it on the table. You now ask the person, who still retains
his hold of the shilling in the handkerchief, if he is sure that it is
there. He will reply in the affirmative; you then request him to allow
you to take the handkerchief, and having done so, you strike that part
of the handkerchief containing the shilling on the box, and immediately
shake out the handkerchief, holding it by two corners, and shifting it
round so as to get the shilling within your grasp: it will thus appear
that the shilling is no longer there. You desire the person to open the
box, and hand it round, till the shilling be found; and when the last
box is opened, and the shilling taken out, you ask the lender to state
whether it is the one which he marked; to which he must, of course,
reply in the affirmative.