"Ron Goulart - The Prisoner of Blackwood Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

hard-won eclairs, eh?"
"At once, at once, Herr Great Lorenzo."
"Good thing this isn't New York." Harry Challenge sat down opposite
the magician. "They'd have given you the heave-ho long ago for trying
such an obvious flimflam onтАФ"
"One of the chief advantages of an outdoor bistro, Harry, is that there
are no swinging doors to be flung through," observed the Great Lorenzo.
"Speaking of which, you look as though you've had the proverbial bum's
rush applied to your person not long since."
"I got tossed out of the palace."
"Serves you right for trying to mingle with your betters." The portly
magician uprighted the trio of cups he'd been using in his shell game. The
sugar cube wasn't beneath any of them. "Since you won't be spending the
evening in amorous pursuits, why not, as I earlier suggested, join me for
dinner at someтАФ"
"Nope. Believe I'll just head back for the hotel."
"To sulk?"
"I might do a little of that," admitted Harry.
The Great Lorenzo waved his right hand through the air and a bright
yellow theater ticket appeared between his fingertips. "Take in my second
show at the Rupert, my boy. I'm planning a new variation of sawing a lady
in half, and dear Sara mayтАФтАЭ
"I've told you a little about the princess, haven't I?"
"A little? When I encountered you last year in Manhattan, you poured
gallons of syrupy reminiscenses into my sympathetic ear," replied the
magician. "Of course, you'd just returned from last year's visit to this
jeweled city in the crown of European real estate and were bubbling over
withтАФтАЭ
"I was last over here late in the winter of ninety-five," said Harry,
puffing absently on his cigar. "A government minister wanted the
Challenge International Detective Agency to handle a case for him and my
father sent meтАФтАЭ
"How is your dear papa these days?"
Harry frowned. "Ogres usually don't change much," he answered. "At
any rate, I met Alicia, she was just twenty-one then andтАФтАЭ
"I know, I know. A great and wondrous romance blossomed, but in the
end, alas, duty forced you to return to American shores, and the fair
princess, with heavy heart, turned her attentions once again to the
demands of her kingdom."
"You make it sound like a dime novel, Lorenzo."
"Everyone's life is a dime novel, my boy," the magician said with a
wistful sigh. "It's when one gets to thinking his life is a Shakespearean
tragedy that the trouble commences."
A gaggle of some half dozen street musicians, decked out in crimson
and gold, went marching lazily down the middle of the narrow street,
filling the gaslit air with brassy militant music.
Eventually Harry said, "Maybe I am making too much of all this."
"Would you care to join me in a brandy? Or an eclair?"
"The thing is," continued Harry, "when our agency was hired to escort
Mr. Katjang Otak and his crown jewels from New York City to the