The Magnificent Showboats Read Online Free PDF Page B

inclined need merely stand on the rudder and swing a mallet.”
    Zamp raised his glass. “To your health and the strength of Bonko’s right arm! At an appropriate time we will discuss this matter again. In the meantime — not a word to anyone! Least of all your cousin aboard Fironzelle’s Golden Conceit !”
    “I understand completely.”
    At the door of the cabin sounded a rap-rap-rap. “Come!” called Zamp.
    Chaunt the steward entered with an envelope of bright yellow paper. “This has just been handed aboard.”
    Opening the envelope, Zamp withdrew a sheet of yellow paper. He read:
To the estimable Apollon Zamp:
    I speak for King Waldemar of Mornune. Your noble ship Miraldra’s Enchantment being on hand, I invite your participation in a competition to be held tomorrow.
    The procedure is this: the master of each vessel shall present that program which he considers his best. An anonymous observer will adjudge each presentation and decide upon the most excellent. Programs will follow each upon the other, commencing at noon upon the Two Varminies to the north of the harbor, then proceeding south from boat to boat, to terminate upon the Miraldra’s Enchantment .
    On the following morning the qualifying shipmaster will be notified, and an announcement will be posted on the notice board before The Jolly Glassblower.
    It is suggested that no entrance fee be levied upon the public for the performances of tomorrow, and that a lapse of fifteen minutes be allowed between programs, for the convenience of all.
    A noble prize at Mornune lies within the scope of tomorrow’s victor! Each should strive to his best avail! Affixed below: the Seal of the House of Bohun.
    The red seal attached to the yellow page depicted two griffins in a circle, each biting the other’s tail.
    Zamp handed the letter to Elias Quaner, who read the letter twice in the thorough fashion of the Quaners. “Our performance will follow that of Garth Ashgale, so it would appear.”
    “That would be my interpretation of the instructions. Our own drive-shaft is securely in place?”
    “It is indeed.”
    “Garth Ashgale is cursed with a fecund imagination. We must be vigilant. It might be wise to bring all the ship’s company aboard for the rest of the day and night.”
    “A sensible precaution.”

     
    Osso Santelmus opened the competition with little more than a token performance. His clowns capered to raucous music; a magician caused objects to sprout wings and fly across the stage; Santelmus himself delivered a comic monologue and simulated a fight between two vulps and a grotock.
    The next presentation, aboard the Vissel Dominator , was somewhat more ambitious: “The Legend of Malganaspe Forest” in sixteen tableaux. The Psychopompos Revenant staged a ballet: “The Twelve Virgins and Buffo the Lewd Ogre”. The middle afternoon was enlivened by “Gazilda and his Unfortunate Double-jointed Idiots,” on the Fireglass Prism . As Phaedra the sun settled into the Lant River, the troupe aboard the Chantrion staged a rather macabre burlesque: “The Oel’s Dinner Party”.
    The merry population of Lanteen, unaccustomed to so generous a spate of free entertainment, next thronged aboard Fironzelle’s Golden Conceit , where Garth Ashgale’s disciplined eight-piece orchestra played a lively mazurka.
    Garth Ashgale came out on the stage and stood smiling in the focused glow of a dozen lamps. He wore a suit of rich dark blue velvet, a shirt of fine white lawn, the headdress of a Sarklentine mage. His manner was easy and suave; he held his hands up and apart to signal the orchestra to silence, and behind him the curtain drew aside a trifle to display a glimpse of the stage-setting. “My dear friends of Lanteen! It is a great pleasure to bring my troupe before an audience so discriminating; I promise I will not insult either your intelligence or your sensibilities with trivial farce or mindless saltations or lewd contortions. No! This pleasant night I