For the last quarter of an hour I have been burning with a desire to explain to my readers a most interesting process, but I am restrained by the fear that this ingenious swindling may facilitate false play. Still, it is an indubitable truth, “that to avoid a danger, it must be known.” Hence, if every player were initiated into the stratagems of the card-swindlers, the latter would find it impossible to employ them. I am, therefore, inclined to make the communication I have stated, that a single mark placed in a certain part of a card is sufficient to make it known. To explain this, I must employ a diagram: DIAGRAM 1. Ace. King. Queen. Knave. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. +---------------------------------------------------------+ | | Hearts | | | | Diamonds | . | | | Clubs | | | | Spades | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------+ Suppose a card divided into eight parts vertically, and four horizontally, as in diagram 1; the former will indicate the value of the cards, the latter the suit. The mark is placed at the point where two lines intersect. Such is the process: practice does the rest.