"Yuri Olesha. The three fat men (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

with red curls sticking out, some had on kerchiefs. Higher up, in the rooms
where poor young poets, artists and actors lived, there were happy-looking
beardless faces lost in clouds of tobacco smoke and lovely young women whose
golden hair lay like a cloud on their shoulders. The house, with its open
windows and brightly-coloured heads poking out, was just like a large cage
of goldfinches. The owners of all these heads were trying to see something
very important that was happening on the roof. This was just as impossible
as trying to see your own ears without a mirror. These people who wanted to
see the roof of their own house used the crowd below as a mirror. Those on
the ground could see everything, they were shouting and waving their arms.
Some were overjoyed, others were terribly angry.
A tiny figure was moving along the roof. It was slowly and carefully
climbing down the steep incline. The iron roofing clattered under its feet.
The little figure waved its cape for balance, just as a tight
rope-walker in the circus uses a yellow Chinese umbrella.
It was Tibul the Acrobat.
The people shouted:
"Bravo, Tibul! Bravo, Tibul!"
"Hang on! Remember how you walked a rope at the fair!"
"He won't fall down! He's the best acrobat in the land!"
"This isn't the first time we've seen him walk up and down a rope."
"Bravo, Tibul!"
"Run! Save yourself! Free Prospero!"
Others were angry. They shook their fists and bellowed:
"You won't escape, you stupid clown!"
"Faker!"
"Rebel! They'll shoot you like a hare!"
"Watch out! We'll pull you off that roof and drag you to the scaffold!
Ten scaffolds will be ready tomorrow!"
Tibul continued his dangerous journey.
"Where did he come from?" the people wondered. "How did he get to the
square? How did he get to the roof?"
"He escaped from the Guards," others said. "He escaped and disappeared.
Then he was seen in different parts of the town, he climbed from roof to
roof. He's as quick as a cat. And his skill came in handy. That's why he's
so famous."
Guards appeared in the square. People were now running to the side
streets to get a better view. Tibul stepped over the railing and stood at
the very edge of the roof. He stretched out his arm. His green cape was
wound around it and fluttered like a flag.
People were used to seeing him with this cape and dressed in yellow and
black harlequin tights at the fairs and market places. Now, high up under
the glass top, his small, thin striped body looked like a wasp crawling up
the wall of a house. Every time the cape flapped in the wind, it seemed as
if the wasp were opening its shiny green wings.
"I hope you fall and break your neck! They'll shoot you, wait and see!"
shouted the drunken fop who had inherited a fortune from his freckled aunt.
The Guards took up their positions. Their officer ran up and down
frowning. He had a large pistol. His spurs were as long as runners.
Suddenly, it became very quiet. The doctor clapped his hand to his