Stealing Folded Billet from Tray

With a full understanding of the foregoing, it will be obvious
that no confederate is needed if the performer can secretly gain
possession of any one question and ascertain its contents before
he starts to give his answers.
One of the ways to do this is as follows:-- The performer carries
a small opaque tray and some blank slips of paper about 1-1/2"
x 3-1/2" down into the audience. He passes out the slips on
which the spectators are requested to write their questions. After
this is done, he explains the necessity for secrecy and requests
each spectator to fold his slip in half with the writing inside,
then fold again in half the other way.
This done, the performer collects the questions on the tray. All
the time the performer has held a folded blank slip on the under
side of the tray, concealed by the fingers of the left hand. As he
returns to the stage, the performer changes the tray from the left
hand to the right, at the same time performing two simple secret
moves. As the right hand takes hold of the tray, the right thumb
slides off one of the question slips lying near the edge of tray.
This question is slid over the edge of tray and falls into the right
hand where it lies concealed between the right hand and the
bottom of the tray.
The left hand at the same moment has done the reverse with the
fake billet. As the tray is withdrawn from the left hand, the
blank folded billet remains in the left hand until the edge of the
tray passes over it when a slight motion of the left fingers will
flip the billet in with the others on the tray. This fake billet has a
bent corner or other secret mark by which it can be easily
distinguished, otherwise the performer will have to follow it
with his eyes so as to avoid picking it up until the end.
The tray is emptied on the table, the stolen question being
secretly held in the palm of the right hand at the roots of the
fingers. On the table is a crystal gazing ball resting on a
cushion. The performer sits down back of the table, picks up a
question slip from the pile, holds it to his forehead and gazes
into the crystal. In the meantime, the right hand is back of the
cushion quickly opening the stolen billet so it can be read, and
announced as the one held at the forehead. The one ahead
system is followed throughout, the stolen billet being switched
for the blank billet after the performer has pretended to read it at
the finish.