"R. A. Lafferty - Stories 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

MORE STORIES BY R.A. LAFFERTY

74. The Man Underneath
*76. Incased in Ancient Rind
*79. Boomer Flats
*81. World Abounding
*82. Groaning Hinges of the World
*83. Ishmael Into the Barrens
*84. Nor Limestone Islands
*85. Sky
86. When All the Lands Pour Out Again
91. Once On Aranea
*96 Eurema's Dam
*97. Dorg
*99. And Now Walk Gently Through the Fire
101. Parthen
104. Seven Story Dream
*106. The World As Will and Wallpaper
108. By the Seashore
*109. In Outraged Stone
111. Days of Grass, Days of Straw

THE MAN UNDERNEATH

Charles Chartel was not the most pleasant man in the world, and as the
Great Zambesi he was not the greatest magician. But he was a smart man and a
good magician. He had the magnetism of a faith healer, the spirit and
appearance of a rooster and a deadly seriousness. He had the patter and the
poise and he had learned all that was learnable.
Nor was he a mere pigeon-passer and card-caller. He had inherited, built
up, bought and assembled as full a repertoire as any Magic Man in the
business.
And, as each must have, he had his specialty: a simple and sound
disappearing act. It was nothing really startling; he seemed to underplay it.
But it was puzzling and it remained a puzzle even to those in the trade. This
one prime trick equated him with the Real Masters who in general technique
were a little out of his class. Actually, in the ultimate variation of it, it
was the greatest trick.
He put Veronica into a box. And when he opened the box again she was
gone. That is all there was to it. The same thing had been performed by dozens
of others in many variations.
But Charles (the Great Zambesi) Chartel did not use any of those
variations; not, certainly, the trap door-for he had once performed the trick
in a wire mesh twenty feet in the air. Besides, he was a cut above the
trap-door men.
After showing the empty box he would always take it apart board by
board, and pass the boards around for all to handle. He would then assemble it
once more into a box, clamp down the cover, unclamp it again, open it, and
Veronica would get out of the box.
The Great Boffo swore that the girl never stepped into the box at all.