"Diana Wynne Jones - Castle In The Air" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

Cheating was a way of life in Zanzib. Abdullah did not allow his
attention to be distracted for one instant from the stranger and his
carpet. It was quite possible the man had bribed Jamal to cause a
distraction. He had mentioned Jamal rather often, as if Jamal were on
his mind. Abdullah kept his eyes sternly on the tall figure of the man
and particularly on the dirty feet planted on the carpet. But he spared
a corner of one eye for the man's face, and he saw the man's lips move.
His alert ears even caught the words too feet upward despite the din
from next door. And he looked even more carefully when the carpet rose
smoothly from the floor and hovered about level with Abdullah's knees,
so that the stranger's tattered headgear was not quite brushing the roof
of the booth. Abdullah looked for rods underneath. He searched for wires
that might have been deftly hooked to the roof. He took hold of the lamp
and tipped it about, so that its light played both over and under the
carpet.

The stranger stood with his arms folded and the sneer entrenched on his
face while Abdullah performed these tests. "See?" he said. "Is the most
desperate of doubters now convinced? Am I standing in the air, or am I
not?" He had to shout. The noise was still deafening from next door.

Abdullah was forced to admit that the carpet did appear to be up in the
air without any means of support that he could find. "Very nearly," he
shouted back. "The next part of the demonstration is for you to dismount
and for me to ride that carpet."

The man frowned. "Why so? What have your other senses to add to the
evidence of your eyes, O dragon of dubiety?"

"It could be a one-man carpet," Abdullah bawled, "as some dogs are."
Jamal's dog was still bellowing away outside, so it was natural to think
of this. Jamal's dog bit anyone who touched it except Jamal.

The stranger sighed. "Down," he said, and the carpet sank gently to the
floor. The stranger stepped off and bowed Abdullah toward it. "It is
yours to test, O sheikh of shrewdness."

8

With considerable excitement, Abdullah stepped onto the carpet. "Go up
two feet," he said to it-or, rather, yelled. It sounded as if the
constables of the City Watch had arrived at Jamal's stall now. They were
clashing weapons and bawling to be told what had happened.

And the carpet obeyed Abdullah. It rose two feet in a smooth surge which
left Abdullah's stomach behind it. He sat down rather hastily. The
carpet was perfectly comfortable to sit on. It felt like a very tight
hammock. "This woefully sluggish intellect is becoming convinced," he
confessed to the stranger. "What was your price again, O paragon of
generosity? Two hundred silver?"