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

The best places for gathering grasses and beetles were out in the
country beyond the town, near the Palace of the Three Fat Men. This was
where the doctor usually went. The Palace of the Three Fat Men stood in the
middle of a huge park. The park was surrounded by deep trenches. There were
black iron bridges across them. And the bridges were guarded by Palace
Guards in black oilskin hats with yellow feathers. All around the park, as
far as the eye could see, were meadows full of flowers, little groves of
trees, and ponds. It was a wonderful place for walks. The most interesting
kinds of grasses grew here, the prettiest beetles buzzed here and the birds
always sang most sweetly.
"It's too far to walk," the doctor thought. "I'll only go to the end of
town, and then I'll take a cab to the Palace park."
There was a big crowd in the square near the town gates.
"Is it Sunday today?" the doctor wondered. "No, I don't think so. It's
Tuesday."
He came a little closer.
The entire square was full of people. There were workers in grey
jackets with green cuffs, sailors with weather-beaten faces, rich merchants
in coloured vests whose wives wore great pink skirts, there were traders
with pitchers, trays, cans of ice-cream and braziers, there were skinny
street actors dressed in green, yellow and other bright colours, looking
just like patchwork quilts, there were very little boys pulling shaggy brown
dogs by the tails.
Everyone was pushing towards the town gates which were as tall as a
house and made of iron. The gates were shut tight.
"Why are the gates shut?" the doctor wondered.
The crowd was noisy, people were shouting and arguing, but it was
impossible to understand what it was all about. The doctor went over to a
young woman holding a big grey cat and asked:
"Would you kindly tell me what's going on? Why are there so many people
here? Why is everyone so angry? And why are the town gates shut?"
"The guards won't let anyone out of town."
"Why not?"
"So they won't be able to help those who left before and are now on
their way to the Palace of the Three Fat Men."
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I don't understand what you mean."
"My goodness! Don't you know that Prospero the Gunsmith and Tibul the
Acrobat led the people to storm the Palace of the Three Fat Men?"
"Prospero the Gunsmith?"
"Yes. There are Guards on the other side of the gates. No one can leave
town. And the Palace Guards will kill off everyone who has gone with
Prospero."
Just then they heard several faint shots.
The young woman dropped her fat cat. It plopped to the ground like a
piece of raw dough. The crowd roared.
"I seem to have missed a very important event," the doctor thought.
"That's because I stayed at home this past month, working day and night, and
my door was locked. I simply had no idea of what was going on."
In the distance a cannon boomed several times. The sound bounced like a
ball and rolled along on the wind. Doctor Caspar was not the only one to get