The plan of the book
The Twenty Chapters
Twenty chapters, from a borrowed pack and a little nerve to memorized stacks and purpose-built packs. Read it as a table of contents, or wander in wherever the title tempts you.
Chapter I
Miscellaneous Tricks
A grab-bag of impromptu wonders that need nothing but a borrowed pack and a little nerve.
Chapter II
Spelling Tricks
Effects where the very letters of a card's name march it into the spotlight.
Chapter III
You-Do-as-I-Do Card Mysteries
Two packs, two people, one impossible coincidence.
Chapter IV
Card Subtleties Utilizing Key Cards
The single most useful secret in card magic: a card you know beside the card you don't.
Chapter V
Slick Principles in Card Magic
One slippery card and the pack practically cuts itself to your command.
Chapter VI
Card Mysteries Employing Diachylon
A breath of adhesive turns ordinary cards into secret partners.
Chapter VII
Double-Back Principles in Card Magic
Cards with two backs and no face — and the lies they let you tell.
Chapter VIII
Magic Utilizing Double-Faced Cards
A card that is two cards at once, depending which way you look.
Chapter IX
Card Mysteries Using a One-Way Back Design
Backs that secretly point the same direction — and betray any card that turns.
Chapter X
Mysteries Using Reversed 'Ordinary' Cards
The drama of a single card found face-up in a face-down pack.
Chapter XI
Calculation Tricks With Ordinary Cards
Self-working mathematics dressed up as mind reading.
Chapter XII
Mysteries of a Prearranged Ordinary Pack of Cards
Set the pack in secret order and the miracles run themselves.
Chapter XIII
Magic With a Svengali Pack of Cards
The famous trick pack where every other card is the same force card.
Chapter XIV
Magic With a Mene-Tekel Pack of Cards
A pack of secret duplicates and short cards that finds any chosen card.
Chapter XV
Magic With a Stripper Pack of Cards
A tapered pack that lets you cut, strip, and locate cards by touch alone.
Chapter XVI
Magical Mysteries With Special Packs, etc.
Forcing decks, fake packs, and other purpose-built confederates.
Chapter XVII
The Use of Short Cards in Magical Effects
One card trimmed a sliver short becomes a key the pack finds for you.
Chapter XVIII
More Miscellaneous Tricks
A second chapter of mixed marvels, from story tricks to four-ace routines.
Chapter XIX
Indispensable Sleights
The handful of moves that quietly power everything else in the book.
Chapter XX
The Nikola Card System
A complete memorized-stack system for a full evening of impossibilities.