Then comes the only difficult part of the trick. Ask the one who has counted the coins to hold both his hands, while you pour the money into them, and taking the plate in your left hand, pour the contents into your right, where you have already _five more palmed_ (the five the audience have not seen). Now pour the fifteen into the hands of number two, and impress upon him the importance of keeping his hands well closed over the money. This will prevent his noticing that an addition has been made. Take the five from person number one, and pretend to place them in your other hand, but instead palm them. Do your talking and command the money to pass. If you have taken proper care in palming your coins, the audience, as well as the one holding the money, will be greatly amazed by the trick.
In almost any performance of this kind, the audience, especially if of one’s intimate friends, are anxious for the performer to try again whatever strikes them as strange or mysterious, being of course on their guard to watch certain movements, at points in the performance which they had scarcely noticed before.
So it is very unsafe to try any trick over again immediately after it has been once performed, or in fact during the same evening; although perhaps it might be safely done if a number of different ones intervened. If beseeched to try it “just once more,” make as graceful an excuse as you can, and suggest in its place something equally interesting.
For this trick, seven half-dollars are required, and are concealed in the right hand by “palming,” as the five two-cent pieces were hid in the former trick.
First, borrow of one of your audience a tall silk hat, promising to return it “as good as new” at the end of the performance. Let the audience examine it to see that the owner is not in league with yourself, and then, walking to the back of the room, place it upon a table. While walking toward the table, with the back toward the audience, palm your coins, which should be held in some convenient pocket, readily accessible when the moment comes for using them.
Next, turn to your audience, having your coins well concealed in your right hand, and request some one to lend you _six_ half-dollars; but immediately, under the pretense of disliking to trouble them, step forward, and, excusing yourself for the liberty, take a coin from the folds of a lady’s dress, by simply letting one of those concealed in your hand slip to the end of your fingers. If you have had sufficient practice in “coining” you will find no difficulty in doing this, and your audience will be inclined to believe you actually found the money secreted in the fabric, although they may believe you had some hand in placing it in its hiding-place.