Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools Read Online Free PDF

and Max both shook their heads.
     
'Why, you arrive back where you started, of course! Because I have come to understand that the world is shaped like a great ball. We move across its surface like flies on a giant fruit.'
     
'How come we don't fall off when we go too far?' asked Max.
     
'The same reason flies don't fall off,' said Cornelius. 'Sticky feet.'
     
Sebastian and Max looked at each other.
     
'Sticky feet?' echoed Max. 'That can't be right. What about when you are in one of those big boats you spoke of. Or are you saying that the bottoms of the boats stick to the surface of the water?'
     
Cornelius shrugged. 'Well, it's a complicated subject, I'll grant you. But nobody yet has offered me a better explanation.'
     
'I've heard one,' said Sebastian. 'There's an old fellow who hangs around the market in Jerabim – fancies himself as a bit of a seer—'
     
'Not old Bartimus?' interrupted Max.
     
Sebastian gave him an indignant look. 'Well, yes actually, but—'
     
'He's a raving lunatic!'
     
'I wasn't aware that you knew Bartimus.'
     
'Everyone knows him! He goes around talking to himself.'
     
'That may well be, but he swears that he was told by one of the most learned men in the land that the world is flat and slightly curved, like the surface of a big shield. In fact, it is a big shield, held by a giant warrior called Mungus.'
     
'A giant warrior?' echoed Max.
     
'Yes. He stands in space with his feet on the back of a huge carpet. This stops him from falling through space—'
     
'Oh, naturally,' said Max. 'I can see that would work.'
     
'The waters of the world are pools of rain that have fallen on the shield and as he moves, they slosh about, causing waves and floods and so forth. According to Bartimus, if you were to travel to the very edges of the shield, you would be able to look across a great distance and see Mungus staring down at you. Bartimus reckons that one day Mungus will get tired of holding the shield and will simply fling it into space as hard as he can. When that happens, everyone in the world will perish.'
     
There was a long silence while Max and Cornelius considered this information.
     
'That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard,' said Cornelius. 'How does this Bartimus character explain how I've managed to sail clear around the world and come right back to where I started?'
     
Sebastian shrugged. 'Bartimus says that the very edge of the giant shield has an enchantment upon it that stops you from falling off. So he would probably suggest that you must simply have just gone around the edge of the shield.'
     
'Nonsense! The man's an idiot,' said Cornelius. 'We sailed straight ahead the whole time, using the stars to guide us. And the captain of our ship was one of the best men in the Golmiran navy. I'm pretty sure he'd have noticed if we'd started deviating from our course.'
     
'Quite right,' said Max dismissively 'Old Bartimus hasn't got a clue. Now I have heard a theory that's much more interesting than either of yours. The way I heard it, the world is actually a big steel ring through the nose of a gigantic buffalope called Colin. His warm breath gives us the air we breathe, and when he sneezes, we get rain. And—'
     
'I take it back,' Cornelius told Sebastian. 'Yours is only the second most ridiculous story I've ever heard!'
     
'I didn't say I believed it,' protested Max. 'But a lot of buffalopes do, you know – there's a huge following for Colin. They say that when the world ends we'll all go to a wonderful pasture in the sky to be with him.'
     
'I don't believe any of that nonsense,' said Cornelius. 'I go by what I have seen with my own eyes, what I have heard with my own ears, what I have touched with my own hands. And you mark my words, this world of ours is round. I'd stake my very life on it.' He yawned, stretched, gave a long sigh. 'By Shadlog's beard, I'm tired,' he announced. 'I think, gentlemen, that I'm ready for sleep. But first I must answer a call of