Part 20 (2/2)
”Come back here, James, you listening to me?”
Everyone watched, as the familiar wagon grew larger. And thought: Has a whole year really pa.s.sed? Has it?
There was Obadiah, sitting erect, expressionless, a dark gentleman with tight white hair, looking exactly as he'd looked the first time; and Dr. Silk--a monarch, an Eastern potentate, a devil and a G.o.d--smiling mysteriously at the running people.”Hi, when's it gonna be?” a young girl cried.
And the others: ”When's the show?” ”You gonna do magic for us?” ”Tonight--it'll be tonight, won't it?”
Dr. Silk smiled and waited until they had crossed the town and reached the open edge; then he nodded to Obadiah and Obadiah squealed the brake blocks and scrambled down, arms filled with cardboard posters.
”Let me take a look at one of them things.” One of the men in the gathering crowd came forward.
”What's it say, Mr. Fritch?”
”Tonight,” the man read aloud, ”at eight o'clock. Says we're all invited to attend a show given by the world's greatest--G.o.d Almighty, what's that?”
”Prestidigitator,” Dr. Silk supplied. ”Magician.”
The man scowled, and continued. ”Wonders-performed-never-before-seen-by-the-human-eye.
All-new. Watch-miracles-as-they-happen. See-the-enchanted-rose-bush.
See-rabbits-appear-out-of-empty-air. See-the-great-card-mystery--” The man stopped reading.
”Tonight?”
”Tonight. Eight sharp.”
”Hiii!” The children began to swarm over the wagon, like mad puppies.
A boy whose face was a violent explosion of brown freckles climbed up and hollered: ”Hey, where you been?”
”Traveling, son.”
”Like where, for instance?”
Dr. Silk jumped down and started to talk. The crowd parted and formed an aisle; grown-ups mumbled excitedly, striding off, while the children went with the Magic Man--the older, and braver, ones, those who remembered last year, by his side; the younger ones following timidly behind. Obadiah remained. When the posters were all up, he would construct the stages, in secret.
”Traveling like where?”
”Oh,” Dr. Silk said, casually but loudly enough for all to hear, ”like China.”
”China!”
”And Paris-France, and London.”
”Really?”
”How about Egypt?” called a voice from the rear: a thin, awkward child, too excited to blush.
”By all means,” Dr. Silk laughed. ”You don't think I'd miss Egypt, do you?”
”And Germany--was you there?”
”Oh, yes.”
”Bet you never went to Africky, with all the cannibals!”
”Now that's where you're wrong, young man. Some of my best friends happen to be cannibals.”
”Is your man a cannibal?”
”Obadiah? Well . . .” Dr. Silk stopped, suddenly. ”I wouldn't want this to get around, but--” He stopped and turned his head in all directions, while the children held their breath. ”Can you all keep a secret?”
Dozens of small heads went up and down, solemnly.
”Well, that man of mine used to be--No; I'd better not tell you.”
”Tell us!”
”No. You'd get scared and run home. You'd tell your daddies and then they wouldn't let you come to the show.”
”No sir! We wouldn't say a word.”
A boy not much larger than a prairie dog tugged at Dr. Silk's black trousers, and said, in a high squeaky voice: ”Honest to _G.o.d_!”
The Magic Man sighed, and squatted. He put his arms around nearby slender shoulders. ”All right. Now you understand, I wouldn't tell n.o.body else but you. Well, sir, that old man of mine used to bethe wildest, fiercest cannibal on the whole Sandwich Island.”
”The Sandwich Island? Where's that at?”
”Why, boy, don't they teach geography in the schools any more? That's in Darkest Africa, right near the Indian Ocean.”
”Oh.”
”We were just pa.s.sing through, you see, when all of a sudden, our s.h.i.+p was attacked by head-hunters. It was something, all right. Anyone here present ever been attacked by head-hunters?”
No one said a word.
”Seven foot tall they was and blacker than the ace of spades, and ugly? Enough to make a body wake up in the cold sweats of a night. They'd all snuck on board without making a sound, and bust in on us. We didn't have a chance. Them devils had special swords that would slice through a stair-rail in one swipe, while we had our fists and that's all. Plus being outnumbered eleven to one. People, I'm not ashamed to say that I was nervous. Everywhere I looked, heads were flying off from folks I'd been chatting with only a few minutes before. I heard the captain start to yell, 'Git back, ye no-good heathens'--but he never finished what he was going to say, because one of the head-hunters had creeped up and lopped off his head clean as a whistle. Having no weapon, I caught it on the fly--”
”You caught _what_ on the fly, Dr. Silk?” a voice quavered.
”The captain's head. Got it by the hair, you see, and started to swing. Luckily Captain Ruyker was a Dutchman, and it's a known fact that Dutchmen have heads as hard as rock. We clouted our way through six or seven of the devils, the captain and me--knocked 'em galley west--but then, when I got to the rail, I seen it was no use. I was a goner. You all know what a crocodile is?”
”Yes, sir.”
”Well, that ocean was just crawling with crocs. I couldn't jump in and swim for it or I'd be et in two minutes. And I couldn't turn back, either, because there they was, madder than hornets, them head-hunters, coming at me with their swords. Either way I was due to be _somebody's_ dinner.”
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