is. Then comes your last question: "What makes lightning?" She is
practically certain to say, "Oh, the thunder." Then you tell her that the
two numbers multiplied together come to 170.

How is this remarkable trick performed? It is quite simple. The two
people whom you asked to think of the numbers are confederates, and you
arranged with them beforehand that they should write down 10 and 17. Of
course it would be a much better trick if they weren't confederates;
but in that case I don't quite know how you would do it.

I shall end up this interesting and instructive article with a rather
more difficult illusion. For the tricks I have already explained it was
sufficient that the amateur prestidigitator (I shall only say this once
more) should know how it was done; for my last trick he will also require
a certain aptitude for legerdemain in order to do it. But a week's quiet
practice at home will give him all the skill that is necessary.

THE MYSTERIOUS PUDDING

is one of the oldest and most popular illusions. You begin by borrowing a
gold watch from one of your audience. Having removed the works, you wrap
the empty case up in a handkerchief and hand it back to him, asking him
to put it in his waistcoat pocket. The works you place in an ordinary
pudding basin and proceed to pound up with a hammer. Having reduced them
to powder, you cover the basin with another handkerchief, which you
borrow from a member of the company, and announce that you are about to
make a plum-pudding. Cutting a small hole in the top of the handkerchief,
you drop a lighted match through the aperture; whereupon the handkerchief
flares up. When the flames have died down you exhibit the basin, wherein
(to the surprise of all) is to be seen an excellent Christmas pudding,
which you may ask your audience to sample. At the same time you tell the
owner of the watch that if he feels in his pockets he will find his
property restored to him intact; and to his amazement he discovers that
the works in some mysterious way have got back into his watch, and that
the handkerchief in which it was wrapped up has gone!

Now for the explanation of this ingenious illusion. The secret of it is
that you have a second basin, with a pudding in it, concealed in the palm
of your right hand. At the critical moment, when the handkerchief flares
up, you take advantage of the excitement produced to substitute the one
basin for the other. The watch from which you extract the