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

He became Joe College; he became the man in the charcoal-tan suit; he
became an old rowdy-dow on the loose with pearl-gray vest and yellow gloves.
Then he became a hobo again-but of a different and worse vesture than before.
"Go away, cistugurium," Veronica whispered angrily, "please g~ away.
You're not supposed to be in the act. Who are you anyhow?"
Nobody else had ever completely changed his garb six times in a minute
and a half while hobbling about the stage with his hands in his pockets.
Nobody else transmuted his shoes from brown to black as be walked in them. The
expression of the little man was pathetic and many eyes misted as they watched
him.
Then, before the act had begun to drag, the little man wobbled over and
fell flat on his face in the box. Zambesi-Chartel closed it and stood poised
over it in an intensity of fear and hope. Then he opened the box again. The
little man was gone.
Zambesi-Chartel took the box apart board by board and he left it apart.
Well, it had been a good act, with an added element. But Charles (the Great
Zambesi) Chartel didn't know how he had done it this time -- or if he was the
one who did it. The trick had always been to make Veronica disappear and
appear; there sure hadn't been any little clown in the act before.
"Damn that cressanges anyhow," Chartel grumbled. He was puzzled. He knew
that little man -- and yet he didn't.


Later that night at the Pepperpot some of the people ate and talked. There
were Chartel himself and Veronica; there was Captain Carter who had the
trained bears; there were the three Lemon sisters, Dolly, Molly, and Polly.
Then another one was with them-for the little man was sitting there and
sniffling. He hadn't been there before and he hadn't come in.
"Shall I order for you, claud?" Molly Lemon asked solicitously. But a
filled plate was already there and the little man began to eat. He grinned and
he grimaced. He was wearing horn-rim glasses and then he was wearing
pince-nez. He had a grin that came shyly as though he were trying it out for
the first time.
"Clarence is so cute," said Dolly Lemon. "We will adopt him into our act
if Chartel doesn't want him."
There was an empty five-cigar carton on the table. The little man picked
it up and it was full. Well, Chartel could duplicate that probably you could
yourself, but it would take prop and preparation. The little man pulled a
stogie from the carton, puffed on it and it was lit. This also could be done;
there are few tricks that cannot be duplicated.
If you are joining the act, cletus, and it seems as though you are,"
said Chartel wondering, "you will have to clean up a little."
Must I really?" asked curt but he obliged at once. He had become as
immaculate a dandy as anyone ever saw. "Captain Carter," he said, "I see from
your pocket bulge that you are a drinking man. I ask you to share it with us."
"It's empty an hour since," Captain Carter muttered sadly.
"It wasn't always empty," said cylix, the little man. "Let me see if I
can restore it."
"The last time a magician filled an empty whisky bottle for me -- and it
was none other than old Zambesi-Chartel here -- the stuff was not potable. It