Predestination

Sealed envelope, containing a slip of paper, is exhibited and given in charge of a spectator, whom we will call A. The conjurer then introduces two piquet packs of thirty-two cards each, giving one pack to a spectator B, and the other one to a third gentleman C. B is then requested to think of any one of the cards as well as its number, counted from the face side of the pack.

This number, say fifteen, is then called out, and A is told to open the envelope in his possession. In it he finds a slip bearing the number twenty-five. C is then requested to count off from the back of his pack, beginning with the number of C's card, in this case fifteen, and ending with the number twenty-five, on the slip. C would therefore proceed to count, in taking off the cards, as follows;

“Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twentyfive.”

The twenty-fifth card in his pack will be the one selected by B.