Description: War Thunder is a next generation military MMO game dedicated to...
© V. V. Shklovskaya-Kordi, 2018
© Vladimirsky L.V., ill., nasl., 2018
© ACT Publishing LLC, 2018
Part one
Rope walker Tibul
Chapter I
The Restless Day of Dr. Gaspard Arnery
The time for wizards is over. In all likelihood, they never actually existed. All these are fiction and fairy tales for very young children. It's just that some magicians were able to deceive all sorts of onlookers so cleverly that these magicians were mistaken for sorcerers and wizards.
There was such a doctor. His name was Gaspar Arneri. A naive person, a fair reveller, a half-educated student could also take him for a magician. In fact, this doctor did such amazing things that they really looked like miracles. Of course, he had nothing to do with wizards and charlatans who fooled too gullible people.
Dr. Gaspard Arneri was a scientist. Perhaps he studied about a hundred sciences. In any case, there was no one in the country wiser and more learned than Gaspard Arnery.
Everyone knew about his learning: the miller, the soldiers, the ladies, and the ministers. And the schoolchildren sang a song about him with the following refrain:
How to fly from earth to the stars
How to catch a fox by the tail
How to make steam out of stone
Our doctor Gaspar knows.
One summer, in June, when there was a very good weather, Dr. Gaspard Arneri decided to go on a long walk to collect some types of herbs and beetles.
Dr. Gaspard was a middle-aged man and therefore was afraid of rain and wind. When he left the house, he wrapped a thick scarf around his neck, put on goggles against dust, took a cane so as not to stumble, and generally went for a walk with great precautions.
This time the day was wonderful; the sun did nothing but shine; the grass was so green that there was even a sensation of sweetness in the mouth; dandelions flew, birds whistled, a light breeze fluttered like an airy ball gown.
“That’s good,” said the doctor, “only you still need to take a raincoat, because summer weather deceptive. It can start raining.
The doctor took care of the housework, blew on his glasses, grabbed his box, like a suitcase, from green skin and went.
Most interesting places were outside the city - where the Palace was located Three Fat Men. The doctor visited these places most often. The Palace of the Three Fat Men stood in the middle of a huge park. The park was surrounded by deep canals. Above the channels hung black iron bridges. The bridges were guarded by the palace guards - guardsmen in black oilcloth hats with yellow feathers. Around the park to the very heavenly line were meadows covered with flowers, groves and ponds. This was a great place to walk. Here grew the most interesting species of grass, here the most beautiful beetles rang and the most skillful birds sang.
“But walking is a long way. I will go to the city rampart and find a cab. He will take me to the palace park, thought the doctor.
There were more people near the city rampart than usual.
“Is today Sunday? the doctor doubted. - I don't think. Today is Tuesday".
The doctor stepped closer.
The whole area was crowded with people. The doctor saw craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs; sailors with faces the color of clay; wealthy townspeople in colored waistcoats with their wives, whose skirts looked like rose bushes; merchants with decanters, trays, ice cream makers and braziers; skinny street actors, green, yellow and motley, as if sewn from a patchwork quilt; very small guys pulling red funny dogs by the tails.
Everyone crowded in front of the city gates. Huge, as high as a house, iron gates were tightly closed.
"Why are the gates closed?" the doctor wondered.
The crowd was noisy, everyone was talking loudly, shouting, cursing, but it was really impossible to make out anything. The doctor approached a young woman who was holding a fat gray cat, and asked:
– Could you please explain what is going on here? Why are there so many people, what is the reason for their excitement and why are the city gates closed?
“Guards don’t let people out of the city…
Why aren't they released?
- So that they do not help those who have already left the city and went to the Palace of the Three Fat Men.
“I don’t understand anything, citizen, and I ask you to forgive me…”
“Ah, don’t you know that today the gunsmith Prospero and the gymnast Tibul led the people to storm the Palace of the Three Fat Men?”
“Prospero the gunsmith?”
- Yes, citizen ... The rampart is high, and on the other side guards riflemen sat down. No one will leave the city, and those who went with the gunsmith Prospero will be killed by the palace guards.
Indeed, several very distant shots rang out.
The woman dropped the fat cat. The cat plopped down like raw dough. The crowd roared.
“So I missed such a significant event,” thought the doctor. “It’s true, I didn’t leave the room for a whole month. I worked in lockdown. I didn't know anything..."
At this time, even further, the cannon hit several times. Thunder bounced like a ball and rolled in the wind. Not only the doctor was frightened and hurriedly retreated a few steps - the whole crowd shied away and fell apart. The children cried; the pigeons flew away with a flurry of wings; the dogs sat down and howled.
Heavy cannon fire began. The noise rose unimaginable. The crowd pressed on the gate and shouted:
- Prospero! Prospero!
- Down with the Three Fat Men!
Dr. Gaspar was completely taken aback. He was recognized in the crowd because many knew him by sight. Some rushed to him, as if seeking protection from him. But the doctor almost cried himself.
“What is going on there? How would you know what is going on there, behind the gate? Maybe the people are winning, or maybe everyone has already been shot!”
Then about ten people ran in the direction where three narrow streets began from the square. On the corner was a house with a tall old tower. Together with the rest, the doctor decided to climb the tower. Downstairs was a laundry room, similar to a bathhouse. It was as dark as a basement there. A spiral staircase led up. Light penetrated through the narrow windows, but there was very little of it, and everyone climbed slowly, with great difficulty, especially since the staircase was dilapidated and with broken railings. It is easy to imagine how much work and excitement it cost Dr. Gaspard to climb to the top floor. In any case, even on the twentieth step, in the darkness, his cry was heard:
“Ah, my heart is bursting, and I have lost my heel!”
The doctor lost his cloak even on the square, after the tenth shot from the cannon.
At the top of the tower was a platform surrounded by stone railings. From here, there was a view of at least fifty kilometers around. There was no time to admire the view, although the view deserved it. Everyone looked in the direction where the battle was taking place.
- I have binoculars. I always carry 8-glass binoculars with me. Here it is, - said the doctor and unfastened the strap.
Binoculars passed from hand to hand.
Dr. Gaspar saw a lot of people in the green space. They ran towards the city. They ran away. From a distance, people looked like colorful flags. Guardsmen on horseback chased the people.
Dr. Gaspar thought it all looked like a picture of a magic lantern. The sun shone brightly, the greenery shone. The bombs exploded like pieces of cotton; the flame appeared for one second, as if someone was letting sunbeams into the crowd. The horses prancing, rearing up and spinning like a top. The park and the Palace of the Three Fat Men were shrouded in white transparent smoke.
- They run!
- They are running ... The people are defeated!
The fleeing people were approaching the city. Entire heaps of people fell along the road. It seemed that multi-colored shreds were pouring onto the greens.
The bomb whistled over the square.
Someone, frightened, dropped the binoculars.
The bomb exploded, and everyone who was at the top of the tower rushed back, down, inside the tower.
The locksmith caught on a hook with a leather apron. He looked around, saw something terrible and yelled at the whole area:
- Run! They've got the gunsmith Prospero! They're about to enter the city!
A commotion began on the square.
The crowd backed away from the gate and ran from the square to the streets. Everyone went deaf from the gunfire.
Dr. Gaspard and two others stopped on the third floor of the tower. They looked out of a narrow window punched into the thick wall.
Only one could look right. The rest watched with one eye.
The doctor also looked with one eye. But even for one eye, the sight was scary enough.
The huge iron gates swung open to their full width. About three hundred people flew into this gate at once. They were craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs. They fell, covered in blood.
Guardsmen jumped over their heads. The guards cut with sabers and fired from guns. Yellow feathers fluttered, black oilcloth hats sparkled, horses opened their red mouths, twisted their eyes and scattered foam.
– Look! Look! Prospero! the doctor shouted.
The gunsmith Prospero was dragged in a noose. He walked, fell and got up again. He had matted red hair, a bloody face, and a thick noose around his neck.
- Prospero! He's been captured! the doctor shouted.
At this time, a bomb flew into the laundry room. The tower tilted, swayed, lingered in an oblique position for one second and collapsed.
The doctor went head over heels, losing his second heel, cane, suitcase and glasses.
Chapter 1
DR. GASPAR ARNERY'S TROUBLE DAY
The time for wizards is over. In all likelihood, they never actually existed. All these are fiction and fairy tales for very young children. It's just that some magicians were able to deceive all sorts of onlookers so cleverly that these magicians were mistaken for sorcerers and wizards.
There was such a doctor. His name was Gaspar Arneri. A naive person, a fair reveller, a half-educated student could also take him for a magician. In fact, this doctor did such amazing things that they really looked like miracles. Of course, he had nothing to do with wizards and charlatans who fooled too gullible people.
Dr. Gaspard Arneri was a scientist. Perhaps he studied about a hundred sciences. In any case, there was no one in the country wiser and more learned than Gaspard Arnery.
Everyone knew about his learning: the miller, the soldiers, the ladies, and the ministers. And the schoolchildren sang a song about him with the following refrain:
How to fly from earth to the stars
How to catch a fox by the tail
How to make steam out of stone
Our doctor Gaspar knows.
One summer, in June, when the weather was very fine, Dr. Gaspard Arneri decided to go on a long walk to collect some species of tavas and beetles.
Dr. Gaspard was a middle-aged man and therefore was afraid of rain and wind. When he left the house, he wrapped a thick scarf around his neck, put on goggles against dust, took a cane so as not to stumble, and generally went for a walk with great precautions.
This time the day was wonderful; the sun did nothing but shine; the grass was so green that there was even a sensation of sweetness in the mouth; dandelions flew, birds whistled, a light breeze fluttered like an airy ball gown.
“That’s good,” said the doctor, “but you still need to take a raincoat, because the summer weather is deceptive. It can start raining.
The doctor ordered about the housework, blew on his glasses, grabbed his box, like a suitcase, made of green leather and went.
The most interesting places were outside the city - where the Palace of the Three Fat Men was located. The doctor visited these places most often. The Palace of the Three Fat Men stood in the middle of a huge park. The park was surrounded by deep canals. Black iron bridges hung over the canals. The bridges were guarded by the palace guards - guardsmen in black oilcloth hats with yellow feathers. Around the park to the very heavenly line were meadows covered with flowers, groves and ponds. This was a great place to walk. Here grew the most interesting species of grass, here the most beautiful beetles rang and the most skillful birds sang.
“But walking is a long way. I will go to the city rampart and find a cab. He will take me to the palace park, thought the doctor.
There were more people near the city rampart than ever.
“Is today Sunday? the doctor doubted. - I don't think.
Today is Tuesday".
The doctor stepped closer.
The whole area was crowded with people. The doctor saw craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs; sailors with faces the color of clay; wealthy townspeople in colored waistcoats, with their wives whose skirts looked like rose bushes; merchants with decanters, trays, ice cream makers and braziers; skinny street actors, green, yellow and motley, as if sewn from a patchwork quilt; very small guys pulling red funny dogs by the tails.
Everyone crowded in front of the city gates. Huge, as high as a house, iron gates were tightly closed.
"Why are the gates closed?" the doctor wondered.
The crowd was noisy, everyone was talking loudly, shouting, cursing, but it was really impossible to make out anything. The doctor approached a young woman holding a fat gray cat in her arms and asked:
– Could you please explain what is going on here? Why are there so many people, what is the reason for their excitement and why are the city gates closed?
“Guards don’t let people out of the city…
Why aren't they released?
- So that they do not help those who have already left the city and went to the Palace of the Three Fat Men.
“I don’t understand anything, citizen, and I ask you to forgive me…”
“Ah, don’t you know that today the gunsmith Prospero and the gymnast Tibul led the people to storm the Palace of the Three Fat Men?”
“Prospero the gunsmith?”
- Yes, citizen ... The rampart is high, and on the other side guards riflemen sat down. No one will leave the city, and those who went with the gunsmith Prospero will be killed by the palace guards.
Indeed, several very distant shots rang out.
The woman dropped the fat cat. The cat plopped down like raw dough. The crowd roared.
“So I missed such a significant event,” thought the doctor. “It’s true, I didn’t leave the room for a whole month. I worked in lockdown. I didn't know anything..."
At this time, even further, the cannon hit several times. Thunder bounced like a ball and rolled in the wind. Not only the doctor was frightened and hurriedly retreated a few steps - the whole crowd shied away and fell apart. The children cried; the pigeons flew away with a flurry of wings; the dogs sat down and howled.
Heavy cannon fire began. The noise rose unimaginable. The crowd pressed on the gate and shouted:
- Prospero! Prospero!
- Down with the Three Fat Men!
Dr. Gaspar was completely taken aback. He was recognized in the crowd because many knew him by sight. Some rushed to him, as if seeking protection from him. But the doctor almost cried himself.
“What is going on there? How would you know what is going on there, behind the gate? Maybe the people are winning, or maybe everyone has already been shot!”
Then about ten people ran in the direction where three narrow streets began from the square. On the corner was a house with a tall old tower. Together with the rest, the doctor decided to climb the tower. Downstairs was a laundry room, similar to a bathhouse. It was as dark as a basement there. A spiral staircase led up. Light penetrated through the narrow windows, but there was very little of it, and everyone climbed slowly, with great difficulty, especially since the staircase was dilapidated and with broken railings. It is easy to imagine how much work and excitement it cost Dr. Gaspard to climb to the top floor. In any case, even on the twentieth step, in the darkness, his cry was heard:
“Ah, my heart is bursting, and I have lost my heel!”
The doctor lost his cloak even on the square, after the tenth shot from the cannon.
At the top of the tower was a platform surrounded by stone railings. From here, there was a view of at least fifty kilometers around. There was no time to admire the view, although the view deserved it. Everyone looked in the direction where the battle was taking place.
- I have binoculars. I always carry 8-glass binoculars with me. Here it is, - said the doctor and unfastened the strap.
Binoculars passed from hand to hand.
Dr. Gaspar saw a lot of people in the green space. They ran towards the city. They ran away. From a distance, people looked like colorful flags. Guardsmen on horseback chased the people.
Dr. Gaspar thought it all looked like a picture of a magic lantern. The sun shone brightly, the greenery shone. The bombs exploded like pieces of cotton; the flame appeared for one second, as if someone was letting sunbeams into the crowd. The horses prancing, rearing up and spinning like a top. The park and the Palace of the Three Fat Men were shrouded in white transparent smoke.
- They run!
- They are running ... The people are defeated!
The fleeing people were approaching the city. Entire heaps of people fell along the road. It seemed that multi-colored shreds were pouring onto the greens.
The bomb whistled over the square.
Someone, frightened, dropped the binoculars.
The bomb exploded, and everyone who was at the top of the tower rushed back, down, inside the tower.
The locksmith caught on a hook with a leather apron. He looked around, saw something terrible and yelled at the whole area:
- Run! They've got the gunsmith Prospero! They're about to enter the city!
A commotion began on the square.
The crowd backed away from the gate and ran from the square to the streets. Everyone went deaf from the gunfire.
Dr. Gaspard and two others stopped on the third floor of the tower. They looked out of a narrow window punched into the thick wall.
Only one could look right. The rest watched with one eye.
The doctor also looked with one eye. But even for one eye, the sight was scary enough.
The huge iron gates swung open to their full width. About three hundred people flew into this gate at once. They were craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs. They fell, covered in blood.
Guardsmen jumped over their heads. The guards cut with sabers and fired from guns. Yellow feathers fluttered, black oilcloth hats sparkled, horses opened their red mouths, twisted their eyes and scattered foam.
– Look! Look! Prospero! the doctor shouted.
The gunsmith Prospero was dragged in a noose. He walked, fell and got up again. He had matted red hair, a bloody face, and a thick noose around his neck.
- Prospero! He's been captured! the doctor shouted.
At this time, a bomb flew into the laundry room. The tower tilted, swayed, lingered in an oblique position for one second and collapsed.
The doctor went head over heels, losing his second heel, cane, suitcase and glasses.
Chapter 2
TEN PLACH
The doctor fell happily: he did not break his head and his legs remained intact. However, that doesn't mean anything. Even a happy fall along with a shot tower is not entirely pleasant, especially for a person who is not young, but rather old, such as Dr. Gaspard Arnery was. In any case, from one fright, the doctor lost consciousness.
When he came to, it was already evening. The Doctor looked around.
- What a shame! The glasses are broken, of course. When I look without glasses, I probably see as a non-short-sighted person sees if he wears glasses. This is very unpleasant.
Then he grumbled about the broken heels:
- I'm already small in stature, and now I'll be an inch shorter. Or maybe two inches, because two heels broke off? No, of course, only one vershok ...
He lay on a pile of rubble. Almost the entire tower collapsed. A long and narrow piece of wall stuck out like a bone. The music played far away. The cheerful waltz flew away with the wind - disappeared and did not return. The doctor raised his head. Hanging from above different parties black broken rafters. Stars shone in the greenish evening sky.
- Where is it played? the doctor was surprised.
It was cold without a coat. Not a single voice was heard in the square. The Doctor, groaning, got up among the stones that had fallen on top of each other. On the way, he caught on someone's big boot. The locksmith lay stretched out across the beam and looked up at the sky. The doctor moved him. The locksmith didn't want to get up. He died.
The Doctor raised his hand to take off his hat.
I also lost my hat. Where am I to go?
He left the square. There were people on the road; the doctor bent low over each and saw the stars reflected in their wide eyes. He touched their foreheads with his hand. They were very cold and wet with blood that seemed black at night.
- Here! Here! whispered the doctor. - So, the people are defeated ... What will happen now?
Half an hour later he reached crowded places. He is very tired. He wanted to eat and drink. Here the city had its usual appearance.
The doctor stood at the crossroads, resting from a long walk, and thought: “How strange! Multi-colored lights are burning, carriages are rushing, glass doors are ringing. Semi-circular windows shine with a golden glow. There, along the columns, couples flicker. There's a fun ball. Chinese colored lanterns circle above black water. People live the way they lived yesterday. Don't they know about what happened this morning? Didn't they hear gunshots and groans? Do they not know that the leader of the people, the armorer Prospero, has been taken prisoner? Maybe nothing happened? Maybe I had a terrible dream?
At the corner where the three-armed lantern burned, carriages stood along the pavement. The flower girls were selling roses. The coachmen were talking to the flower girls.
“He was dragged in a noose through the city. Poor thing!
“Now they put him in an iron cage. The cage is in the Palace of the Three Fat Men,” said a fat coachman in a blue top hat with a bow.
Then a lady with a girl came up to the flower girls to buy roses.
- Who was put in a cage? she asked.
- Armourer Prospero. The guards took him prisoner.
- Well, thank God! said the lady.
The girl whimpered.
“Why are you crying, stupid? the lady was surprised. “Do you feel sorry for the gunsmith Prospero?” You don't have to feel sorry for him. He wanted to harm us... Look at the beautiful roses...
big roses, like swans, slowly swam in bowls full of bitter water and leaves.
Here are three roses for you. And there is no need to cry. They are rebels. If they are not put in iron cages, they will take our houses, dresses and our roses, and cut us.
At that moment, a boy ran past. He pulled first the lady by her cloak, embroidered with stars, and then the girl by her pigtail.
“Nothing, Countess! the boy shouted. - The gunsmith Prospero is in a cage, and the gymnast Tibul is free!
- Ah, slut!
The lady stamped her foot and dropped her purse. The flower girls began to laugh out loud. The fat coachman took advantage of the commotion and invited the lady to get into the carriage and go.
The lady and the girl drove off.
- Wait, jumper! the flower girl called to the boy. - Come here! Tell me what you know...
Two coachmen got off the goat and, tangled in their bonnets with five capes, went up to the flower girls.
“Here is the whip, so the whip! Whip!" thought the boy, looking at the long whip that the coachman was waving. The boy really wanted to have such a whip, but it was impossible for many reasons.
- So what are you saying? the coachman asked in a bass voice. - Gymnast Tibul is free?
- So they say. I was in port...
"Didn't the guards kill him?" asked the other coachman, also in a bass voice.
- No, dad ... Beauty, give me one rose!
- Wait, fool! You better tell...
- Yes. So, that's it... At first everyone thought that he had been killed. Then they searched for him among the dead and did not find him.
“Perhaps they threw him into a canal?” asked the coachman.
A beggar intervened in the conversation.
- Whom in the channel? - he asked. – Gymnast Tibul is not a kitten. You won't drown him! Gymnast Tibul is alive. He managed to escape!
- You're lying, camel! said the coachman.
– Gymnast Tibul is alive! cried the flower girls in delight.
The boy pulled off the rose and started to run. Drops from the wet flower fell on the doctor. The doctor wiped the drops from his face, bitter as tears, and stepped closer to listen to what the beggar had to say.
There was something that got in the way of the conversation. An extraordinary procession appeared on the street. In front rode two riders with torches. Torches fluttered like fiery beards. Then a black carriage with a coat of arms moved slowly.
The carpenters followed behind. There were a hundred of them.
They walked with their sleeves rolled up, ready to go, with aprons, saws, planers, and boxes under their arms. Guardsmen rode on both sides of the procession. They held back the horses that wanted to gallop.
- What is it? What's this? Passers-by got excited.
An official was sitting in a black carriage with a coat of arms Council of Three Tolstyakov. The flower girls were scared. Raising their palms to their cheeks, they looked at his head. She was visible through the glass door. The street was brightly lit. The black head in the wig swayed as if dead. It seemed that a bird was sitting in the carriage.
- Stay away! shouted the guards.
Where are the carpenters going? the little flower girl asked the head guard.
And the guardsman shouted into her face so fiercely that her hair swelled, as if in a draft:
- The carpenters are going to build chopping blocks! Understood? The carpenters will build ten blocks!
The flower girl dropped her bowl. Roses poured out like compote.
“They are going to build chopping blocks!” repeated Dr. Gaspard in horror.
- Cry! shouted the guardsman, turning around and baring his teeth under a mustache that looked like boots. “Blow all the rebels!” Everyone's heads will be cut off! Anyone who dares to rebel against the power of the Three Fat Men!
The doctor's head was spinning. He thought he was going to faint.
“I've been through too much this day,” he said to himself, “and besides, I'm very hungry and very tired. We need to hurry home."
Indeed, it was time for the doctor to rest. He was so excited by everything that had happened, seen and heard, that he did not even attach importance to his own flight along with the tower, the absence of a hat, cloak, cane and heels. Worst of all was, of course, without glasses. He hired a carriage and went home.
Chapter 3
STAR AREA
The doctor was returning home. He rode along the widest asphalt streets, which were lit brighter than the halls, and a chain of lanterns ran high above him in the sky. The lanterns looked like balls filled with dazzling boiling milk. Around the lanterns, midges fell, sang and died. He rode along the embankments, along the stone fences. There, bronze lions held shields in their paws and stuck out long tongues. Below, the water flowed slowly and thickly, black and shining like pitch. The city capsized into the water, sank, floated away and could not swim away, only dissolved in delicate golden spots. He rode over arched bridges. From below, or from the other side, they looked like cats arching their iron backs before jumping. Here, at the entrance, there were guards on every bridge. Soldiers sat on drums, smoking pipes, playing cards and yawning at the stars. The doctor rode, looked and listened.
From the street, from the houses, from the open windows of the taverns, from behind the fences of the pleasure gardens, individual words of the song rushed:
Hit Prospero in a well-aimed
Restraint Collar -
Sitting in an iron cage
A zealous gunsmith.
The tipsy dandy picked up this verse. The dandy's aunt died, who had a lot of money, even more freckles and did not have a single relative. Frant inherited all of his aunt's money. Therefore, he was, of course, dissatisfied with the fact that the people were rising up against the power of the rich.
There was a big show going on in the menagerie. On the wooden stage, three fat shaggy monkeys portrayed the Three Fat Men. The fox terrier played the mandolin. A clown in a crimson suit, with a golden sun on his back and a golden star on his belly, recited verses to the beat of the music:
Like three sacks of wheat
Three fell apart Fat Man!
They have no more worries
How to grow a belly!
Hey, watch out, Fatties:
The last days have arrived!
The last days have arrived! shouted the bearded parrots from all sides.
The noise was incredible. Animals in different cages began to bark, growl, click, whistle.
Monkeys darted across the stage. It was impossible to understand where their hands were, where their legs were. They jumped into the audience and rushed to flee. There was also a scandal in the public. Those who were thicker were especially noisy. Fat men with flushed cheeks, shaking with anger, threw hats and binoculars at the clown. The fat lady waved her umbrella and, catching a fat neighbor, tore off her hat.
- Ah, ah, ah! the neighbor cackled and raised her hands, because the wig fell off along with the hat.
The monkey, running away, slapped the lady's bald head with her palm. The neighbor fainted.
– Ha-ha-ha!
– Ha-ha-ha! – the other part of the audience, thinner in appearance and worse dressed, was flooded. – Bravo! Bravo! Fuck them! Down with the Three Fat Men! Long live Prospero! Long live Tibul! Long live the people!
At that moment, a very loud cry was heard:
- Fire! The city is on fire...
People, crushing each other and overturning benches, ran to the exits. The watchmen caught the runaway monkeys.
The driver who was carrying the doctor turned and said, pointing in front of him with a whip:
“Guards are burning the workers' quarters. They want to find the gymnast Tibul...
Above the city, above the black heap of houses, a pink glow trembled.
When the doctor's carriage arrived at the main city square, which was called the Square of the Star, it turned out to be impossible to pass. At the entrance crowded a mass of carriages, carriages, riders, pedestrians.
- What? the doctor asked.
No one answered anything, because everyone was busy with what was happening in the square. The driver got up to his full height on the goats and began to look there too.
This area was called the Square of the Star for the following reason. It was surrounded by huge houses of the same height and shape and covered with a glass dome, which made it look like a colossal circus. In the middle of the dome, at a terrible height, the world's largest lantern burned. It was an amazingly large ball. Covered across by an iron ring, hanging on powerful cables, it resembled the planet Saturn. Its light was so beautiful and so unlike any earthly light that people gave this lantern a wonderful name - the Star. So they began to call the whole area.
No more light was needed in the square, or in the houses, or in the streets nearby. The star illuminated all the nooks and crannies, all the corners and closets in all the houses that surrounded the square with a stone ring. Here people did without lamps and candles.
The charioteer looked over the carriages, carriages, and coachman's top hats, which looked like the heads of apothecary's vials.
Let's remember one of the most beloved books of Soviet children - the fairy tale novel "Three Fat Men". Its author is a famous writer, poet and playwright Yuri Olesha. The book has been translated into 17 languages and has been used in films and performances. Today we will get acquainted with its plot.
Yuri Olesha. "Three fat men". Summary
The action of the novel takes place in a state ruled by Three Fat Men - greedy, evil gluttons who in every possible way oppress ordinary people: artisans, small shopkeepers, poor merchants and craftsmen. The people, languishing under the yoke of greedy rulers, revolted, led by the gunsmith Prospero and the tightrope walker Tibul. That's the backstory. The novel begins with the fact that the uprising is crushed, Prospero is arrested, and Tibul is wanted.
Summary. "Three fat men". Gaspar Arnery
The good doctor Gaspard Arneri, a local celebrity, becomes an unwitting participant in the events after he first enters the war zone, and then discovers the fugitive Tibul at his home. He makes the gymnast unrecognizable by painting him black and thus turning him into a black man, but the proud leader of the uprising impersonates himself in the crowd in the market, after which he starts running again. In the meantime, 10 blocks are being erected on the square for the arrested participants in the uprising.
In parallel with the description of the events in the city, a story is being told about what is happening in the palace of the three Fat Men. It turns out that a boy named Tutti lives with them, whom they raise as a little prince, indulging his every whim and striving to raise an heir not only to their wealth and power, but also to their inherent vices. The heir does not communicate with other children, and a small company throughout his short life is a doll that he loves as his only friend. But one day the doll suffered from the hand of a guard who took the side of the uprising and broke. Tutti is inconsolable in her grief, and the Fat Men send her to Dr. Gaspard for repairs.
All attempts to fix the breakdown were useless, because the allotted time is too short, and the doctor goes to the Fat Man's castle with a doll to ask for a reprieve. On the way, he loses the doll, and then accidentally gets into the van of the circus performers, Tibul's comrades. Here he meets the girl Suok, who, like two drops of water, looks like a doll of the heir. Soon Tibul also comes here. Together they decide to pass off the young circus performer as a doll so that she can enter the palace and free Prospero, who is languishing in the basement.
The girl brilliantly coped with her role. Everyone mistook her for a doll, and at night she manages to free the prisoner. The gunsmith leaves through a secret underground passage, but Suok does not have time to follow him and is arrested. The next day, a trial is arranged for the poor girl, but she does not react in any way to what is happening, which causes the anger of the Fat Styakov and their entourage. Cruel rulers throw a circus performer to be torn apart by tigers, and then it turns out that this is not a girl, but a broken doll.
Summary. "Three fat men". denouement
At this moment, the rebels, led by their leaders - the gunsmith Prospero and the circus performer Tibul, break into the palace and capture the Tolstyakov and their retinue. The people celebrate the victory. But what happened to Tutti's heir? Despite all the efforts of his guardians, he remains a kind and sympathetic boy, moreover, it turns out that he brother Suok, kidnapped in infancy and placed in the castle of the rulers. The boy joins a troupe of itinerant artists and finally finds happiness.
Takovo summary The Three Fat Men book. But in order to learn about all the adventures of the heroes described in the romantic figurative language of Yuri Olesha, read the book in the original. You won't be disappointed.
PART ONE
ROPE WALKER TIBUL
Chapter 1
DR. GASPAR ARNERY'S TROUBLE DAY
The time for wizards is over. In all likelihood, they never actually existed. All these are fiction and fairy tales for very young children. It's just that some magicians were able to deceive all sorts of onlookers so cleverly that these magicians were mistaken for sorcerers and wizards.
There was such a doctor. His name was Gaspar Arneri. A naive person, a fair reveller, a half-educated student could also take him for a magician. In fact, this doctor did such amazing things that they really looked like miracles. Of course, he had nothing to do with wizards and charlatans who fooled too gullible people.
Dr. Gaspard Arneri was a scientist. Perhaps he studied about a hundred sciences. In any case, there was no one in the country wiser and more learned than Gaspard Arnery.
Everyone knew about his learning: the miller, the soldiers, the ladies, and the ministers. And the schoolchildren sang a song about him with the following refrain:
How to fly from earth to the stars
How to catch a fox by the tail
How to make steam out of stone
Our doctor Gaspar knows.
One summer, in June, when the weather was very fine, Dr. Gaspard Arneri decided to go on a long walk to collect some kinds of herbs and beetles.
Dr. Gaspard was a middle-aged man and therefore was afraid of rain and wind. When he left the house, he wrapped a thick scarf around his neck, put on goggles against dust, took a cane so as not to stumble, and generally went for a walk with great precautions.
This time the day was wonderful; the sun did nothing but shine; the grass was so green that there was even a sensation of sweetness in the mouth; dandelions flew, birds whistled, a light breeze fluttered like an airy ball gown.
“That’s good,” said the doctor, “but you still need to take a raincoat, because the summer weather is deceptive. It can start raining.
The doctor ordered about the housework, blew on his glasses, grabbed his box, like a suitcase, made of green leather and went.
The most interesting places were outside the city - where the Palace of the Three Fat Men was located. The doctor visited these places most often. The Palace of the Three Fat Men stood in the middle of a huge park. The park was surrounded by deep canals. Black iron bridges hung over the canals. The bridges were guarded by the palace guards - guardsmen in black oilcloth hats with yellow feathers. Around the park to the very heavenly line were meadows covered with flowers, groves and ponds. This was a great place to walk. Here grew the most interesting species of grass, here the most beautiful beetles rang and the most skillful birds sang.
“But walking is a long way. I will go to the city rampart and find a cab. He will take me to the palace park, thought the doctor.
There were more people near the city rampart than ever.
“Is today Sunday? the doctor doubted. - I don't think. Today is Tuesday".
The doctor stepped closer.
The whole area was crowded with people. The doctor saw craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs; sailors with faces the color of clay; wealthy townspeople in colored waistcoats, with their wives whose skirts looked like rose bushes; merchants with decanters, trays, ice cream makers and braziers; skinny street actors, green, yellow and motley, as if sewn from a patchwork quilt; very small guys pulling red funny dogs by the tails.
Everyone crowded in front of the city gates. Huge, as high as a house, iron gates were tightly closed.
"Why are the gates closed?" the doctor wondered.
The crowd was noisy, everyone was talking loudly, shouting, cursing, but it was really impossible to make out anything. The doctor approached a young woman holding a fat gray cat in her arms and asked:
– Could you please explain what is going on here? Why are there so many people, what is the reason for their excitement and why are the city gates closed?
– Guardsmen do not let people out of the city...
Why aren't they released?
- So that they do not help those who have already left the city and went to the Palace of the Three Fat Men.
“I don’t understand anything, citizen, and I ask you to forgive me…”
“Ah, don’t you know that today the gunsmith Prospero and the gymnast Tibul led the people to storm the Palace of the Three Fat Men?”
“Prospero the gunsmith?”
- Yes, citizen ... The rampart is high, and on the other side guardsmen sat down. No one will leave the city, and those who went with the gunsmith Prospero will be killed by the palace guards.
Indeed, several very distant shots rang out.
The woman dropped the fat cat. The cat plopped down like raw dough. The crowd roared.
“So I missed such a significant event,” thought the doctor. “It’s true, I didn’t leave the room for a whole month. I worked in lockdown. I didn't know anything..."
At this time, even further, the cannon hit several times. Thunder bounced like a ball and rolled in the wind. Not only the doctor was frightened and hurriedly retreated a few steps - the whole crowd shied away and fell apart. The children cried; the pigeons flew away with a flurry of wings; the dogs sat down and howled.
Heavy cannon fire began. The noise rose unimaginable. The crowd pressed on the gate and shouted:
- Prospero! Prospero!
- Down with the Three Fat Men!
Dr. Gaspar was completely taken aback. He was recognized in the crowd because many knew him by sight. Some rushed to him, as if seeking protection from him. But the doctor almost cried himself.
“What is going on there? How would you know what is going on there, behind the gate? Maybe the people are winning, or maybe everyone has already been shot!”
Then about ten people ran in the direction where three narrow streets began from the square. On the corner was a house with a tall old tower. Together with the rest, the doctor decided to climb the tower. Downstairs was a laundry room, similar to a bathhouse. It was as dark as a basement there. A spiral staircase led up. Light penetrated through the narrow windows, but there was very little of it, and everyone climbed slowly, with great difficulty, especially since the staircase was dilapidated and with broken railings. It is easy to imagine how much work and excitement it cost Dr. Gaspard to climb to the top floor. In any case, even on the twentieth step, in the darkness, his cry was heard:
“Ah, my heart is bursting, and I have lost my heel!”
The doctor lost his cloak even on the square, after the tenth shot from the cannon.
At the top of the tower was a platform surrounded by stone railings. From here, there was a view of at least fifty kilometers around. There was no time to admire the view, although the view deserved it. Everyone looked in the direction where the battle was taking place.
- I have binoculars. I always carry 8-glass binoculars with me. Here it is, - said the doctor and unfastened the strap.
Binoculars passed from hand to hand.
Dr. Gaspar saw a lot of people in the green space. They ran towards the city. They ran away. From a distance, people looked like colorful flags. Guardsmen on horseback chased the people.
Dr. Gaspar thought it all looked like a picture of a magic lantern. The sun shone brightly, the greenery shone. The bombs exploded like pieces of cotton; the flame appeared for one second, as if someone was letting sunbeams into the crowd. The horses prancing, rearing up and spinning like a top. The park and the Palace of the Three Fat Men were shrouded in white transparent smoke.
- They run!
– They are running... The people are defeated!
The fleeing people were approaching the city. Entire heaps of people fell along the road. It seemed that multi-colored shreds were pouring onto the greens.
The bomb whistled over the square.
Someone, frightened, dropped the binoculars.
The bomb exploded, and everyone who was at the top of the tower rushed back, down, inside the tower.
The locksmith caught on a hook with a leather apron. He looked around, saw something terrible and yelled at the whole area:
- Run! They've got the gunsmith Prospero! They're about to enter the city!
A commotion began on the square.
The crowd backed away from the gate and ran from the square to the streets. Everyone went deaf from the gunfire.
Dr. Gaspard and two others stopped on the third floor of the tower. They looked out of a narrow window punched into the thick wall.
Only one could look right. The rest watched with one eye.
The doctor also looked with one eye. But even for one eye, the sight was scary enough.
The huge iron gates swung open to their full width. About three hundred people flew into this gate at once. They were craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs. They fell, covered in blood.
Guardsmen jumped over their heads. The guards cut with sabers and fired from guns. Yellow feathers fluttered, black oilcloth hats sparkled, horses opened their red mouths, twisted their eyes and scattered foam.
– Look! Look! Prospero! the doctor shouted.
The gunsmith Prospero was dragged in a noose. He walked, fell and got up again. He had matted red hair, a bloody face, and a thick noose around his neck.
- Prospero! He's been captured! the doctor shouted.
At this time, a bomb flew into the laundry room. The tower tilted, swayed, lingered in an oblique position for one second and collapsed.
The doctor went head over heels, losing his second heel, cane, suitcase and glasses.
Chapter 2
TEN PLACH
The doctor fell happily: he did not break his head and his legs remained intact. However, that doesn't mean anything. Even a happy fall along with a shot tower is not entirely pleasant, especially for a person who is not young, but rather old, such as Dr. Gaspard Arnery was. In any case, from one fright, the doctor lost consciousness.
When he came to, it was already evening. The Doctor looked around.
- What a shame! The glasses are broken, of course. When I look without glasses, I probably see as a non-short-sighted person sees if he wears glasses. This is very unpleasant.
Then he grumbled about the broken heels:
- I'm already small in stature, and now I'll be an inch shorter. Or maybe two inches, because two heels broke off? No, of course, only one vershok ...
He lay on a pile of rubble. Almost the entire tower collapsed. A long and narrow piece of wall stuck out like a bone. The music played far away. The cheerful waltz flew away with the wind - disappeared and did not return. The doctor raised his head. Black broken rafters hung from different sides above. Stars shone in the greenish evening sky.
- Where is it played? the doctor was surprised.
It was cold without a coat. Not a single voice was heard in the square. The Doctor, groaning, got up among the stones that had fallen on top of each other. On the way, he caught on someone's big boot. The locksmith lay stretched out across the beam and looked up at the sky. The doctor moved him. The locksmith didn't want to get up. He died.
The Doctor raised his hand to take off his hat.
I also lost my hat. Where am I to go?
He left the square. There were people on the road; the doctor bent low over each and saw the stars reflected in their wide eyes. He touched their foreheads with his hand. They were very cold and wet with blood that seemed black at night.
- Here! Here! whispered the doctor. - So, the people are defeated ... What will happen now?
Half an hour later he reached crowded places. He is very tired. He wanted to eat and drink. Here the city had its usual appearance.
The doctor stood at the crossroads, resting from a long walk, and thought: “How strange! Multi-colored lights are burning, carriages are rushing, glass doors are ringing. Semi-circular windows shine with a golden glow. There, along the columns, couples flicker. There's a fun ball. Chinese colored lanterns circle over the black water. People live the way they lived yesterday. Don't they know about what happened this morning? Didn't they hear gunshots and groans? Do they not know that the leader of the people, the armorer Prospero, has been taken prisoner? Maybe nothing happened? Maybe I had a terrible dream?
At the corner where the three-armed lantern burned, carriages stood along the pavement. The flower girls were selling roses. The coachmen were talking to the flower girls.
“He was dragged in a noose through the city. Poor thing!
“Now they put him in an iron cage. The cage is in the Palace of the Three Fat Men,” said a fat coachman in a blue top hat with a bow.
Then a lady with a girl came up to the flower girls to buy roses.
- Who was put in a cage? she asked.
- Armourer Prospero. The guards took him prisoner.
- Well, thank God! said the lady.
The girl whimpered.
“Why are you crying, stupid? the lady was surprised. “Do you feel sorry for the gunsmith Prospero?” You don't have to feel sorry for him. He wanted to hurt us... Look at the beautiful roses...
Large roses, like swans, floated slowly in bowls full of bitter water and leaves.
Here are three roses for you. And there is no need to cry. They are rebels. If they are not put in iron cages, they will take our houses, dresses and our roses, and cut us.
At that moment, a boy ran past. He pulled first the lady by her cloak, embroidered with stars, and then the girl by her pigtail.
“Nothing, Countess! the boy shouted. - The gunsmith Prospero is in a cage, and the gymnast Tibul is free!
- Ah, slut!
The lady stamped her foot and dropped her purse. The flower girls began to laugh out loud. The fat coachman took advantage of the commotion and invited the lady to get into the carriage and go.
The lady and the girl drove off.
- Wait, jumper! the flower girl called to the boy. - Come here! Tell me what you know...
Two coachmen got off the goat and, tangled in their bonnets with five capes, went up to the flower girls.
“Here is the whip, so the whip! Whip!" thought the boy, looking at the long whip that the coachman was waving. The boy really wanted to have such a whip, but it was impossible for many reasons.
- So what are you saying? the coachman asked in a bass voice. - Gymnast Tibul is free?
- So they say. I was in port...
"Didn't the guards kill him?" asked the other coachman, also in a bass voice.
- No, dad ... Beauty, give me one rose!
- Wait, fool! You better tell...
- Yes. So, that's it... At first everyone thought that he had been killed. Then they searched for him among the dead and did not find him.
“Perhaps they threw him into a canal?” asked the coachman.
A beggar intervened in the conversation.
- Whom in the channel? - he asked. – Gymnast Tibul is not a kitten. You won't drown him! Gymnast Tibul is alive. He managed to escape!
- You're lying, camel! said the coachman.
– Gymnast Tibul is alive! cried the flower girls in delight.
The boy pulled off the rose and started to run. Drops from the wet flower fell on the doctor. The doctor wiped the drops from his face, bitter as tears, and stepped closer to listen to what the beggar had to say.
There was something that got in the way of the conversation. An extraordinary procession appeared on the street. In front rode two riders with torches. Torches fluttered like fiery beards. Then a black carriage with a coat of arms moved slowly.
The carpenters followed behind. There were a hundred of them.
They walked with their sleeves rolled up, ready to go, with aprons, saws, planers, and boxes under their arms. Guardsmen rode on both sides of the procession. They held back the horses that wanted to gallop.
- What is it? What's this? Passers-by got excited.
In a black carriage with a coat of arms sat an official of the Council of Three Fat Men. The flower girls were scared. Raising their palms to their cheeks, they looked at his head. She was visible through the glass door. The street was brightly lit. The black head in the wig swayed as if dead. It seemed that a bird was sitting in the carriage.
- Stay away! shouted the guards.
Where are the carpenters going? the little flower girl asked the head guard.
And the guardsman shouted into her face so fiercely that her hair swelled, as if in a draft:
- The carpenters are going to build chopping blocks! Understood? The carpenters will build ten blocks!
- BUT!
The flower girl dropped her bowl. Roses poured out like compote.
“They are going to build chopping blocks!” repeated Dr. Gaspard in horror.
- Cry! shouted the guardsman, turning around and baring his teeth under a mustache that looked like boots. “Blow all the rebels!” Everyone's heads will be cut off! Anyone who dares to rebel against the power of the Three Fat Men!
The doctor's head was spinning. He thought he was going to faint.
“I've been through too much this day,” he said to himself, “and besides, I'm very hungry and very tired. We need to hurry home."
Indeed, it was time for the doctor to rest. He was so excited by everything that had happened, seen and heard, that he did not even attach importance to his own flight along with the tower, the absence of a hat, cloak, cane and heels. Worst of all was, of course, without glasses. He hired a carriage and went home.
Chapter 3
STAR AREA
The doctor was returning home. He rode along the widest asphalt streets, which were lit brighter than the halls, and a chain of lanterns ran high above him in the sky. The lanterns looked like balls filled with dazzling boiling milk. Around the lanterns, midges fell, sang and died. He rode along the embankments, along the stone fences. There, bronze lions held shields in their paws and stuck out long tongues. Below, the water flowed slowly and thickly, black and shining like pitch. The city capsized into the water, sank, floated away and could not swim away, only dissolved in delicate golden spots. He rode over arched bridges. From below, or from the other side, they looked like cats arching their iron backs before jumping. Here, at the entrance, there were guards on every bridge. Soldiers sat on drums, smoking pipes, playing cards and yawning at the stars. The doctor rode, looked and listened.
From the street, from the houses, from the open windows of the taverns, from behind the fences of the pleasure gardens, individual words of the song rushed:
Hit Prospero in a well-aimed
Restraint Collar -
Sitting in an iron cage
A zealous gunsmith.
The tipsy dandy picked up this verse. The dandy's aunt died, who had a lot of money, even more freckles and did not have a single relative. Frant inherited all of his aunt's money. Therefore, he was, of course, dissatisfied with the fact that the people were rising up against the power of the rich.
There was a big show going on in the menagerie. On the wooden stage, three fat shaggy monkeys portrayed the Three Fat Men. The fox terrier played the mandolin. A clown in a crimson suit, with a golden sun on his back and a golden star on his belly, recited verses to the beat of the music:
Like three sacks of wheat
Three fell apart Fat Man!
They have no more worries
How to grow a belly!
Hey, watch out, Fatties:
The last days have arrived!
The last days have arrived! shouted the bearded parrots from all sides.
The noise was incredible. Animals in different cages began to bark, growl, click, whistle.
Monkeys darted across the stage. It was impossible to understand where their hands were, where their legs were. They jumped into the audience and rushed to flee. There was also a scandal in the public. Those who were thicker were especially noisy. Fat men with flushed cheeks, shaking with anger, threw hats and binoculars at the clown. The fat lady waved her umbrella and, catching a fat neighbor, tore off her hat.
- Ah, ah, ah! the neighbor cackled and raised her hands, because the wig fell off along with the hat.
The monkey, running away, slapped the lady's bald head with her palm. The neighbor fainted.
– Ha-ha-ha!
– Ha-ha-ha! – the other part of the audience, thinner in appearance and worse dressed, was flooded. – Bravo! Bravo! Fuck them! Down with the Three Fat Men! Long live Prospero! Long live Tibul! Long live the people!
At that moment, a very loud cry was heard:
- Fire! The city is on fire...
People, crushing each other and overturning benches, ran to the exits. The watchmen caught the runaway monkeys.
The driver who was carrying the doctor turned and said, pointing in front of him with a whip:
“Guards are burning the workers' quarters. They want to find the gymnast Tibul...
Above the city, above the black heap of houses, a pink glow trembled.
When the doctor's carriage arrived at the main city square, which was called the Square of the Star, it turned out to be impossible to pass. At the entrance crowded a mass of carriages, carriages, riders, pedestrians.
- What? the doctor asked.
No one answered anything, because everyone was busy with what was happening in the square. The driver got up to his full height on the goats and began to look there too.
This area was called the Square of the Star for the following reason. It was surrounded by huge houses of the same height and shape and covered with a glass dome, which made it look like a colossal circus. In the middle of the dome, at a terrible height, the world's largest lantern burned. It was an amazingly large ball. Covered across by an iron ring, hanging on powerful cables, it resembled the planet Saturn. Its light was so beautiful and so unlike any earthly light that people gave this lantern a wonderful name - the Star. So they began to call the whole area.
No more light was needed in the square, or in the houses, or in the streets nearby. The star illuminated all the nooks and crannies, all the corners and closets in all the houses that surrounded the square with a stone ring. Here people did without lamps and candles.
The charioteer looked over the carriages, carriages, and coachman's top hats, which looked like the heads of apothecary's vials.
– What do you see?.. What is going on there? the doctor was worried, looking out from behind the coachman. little doctor could not see anything, especially since he was nearsighted.
The driver relayed everything he saw. And that's what he saw.
There was great excitement in the square. People were running around the huge circular space. The circle of the square seemed to be spinning like a merry-go-round. People rolled from one place to another in order to better see what was being done above.
A monstrous lantern, blazing on high, blinded the eyes like the sun. People lifted their heads up and covered their eyes with their palms.
- Here he is! Here he is! - there were screams.
- Here, look! There!
- Where? Where?
- Above!
- Tibul! Tibul!
Hundreds of index fingers extended to the left. There was an ordinary house there. But on six floors all the windows were dissolved. Heads stuck out of every window. They were different in appearance: some in nightcaps with tassels; others in pink caps, with kerosene-coloured curls; the third in headscarves; upstairs where she lived poor youth- poets, artists, actresses - looked out cheerful, beardless faces, in clouds of tobacco smoke, and the heads of women, surrounded by such a radiance of golden hair that it seemed as if they had wings on their shoulders. This house, with open lattice windows, from which multicolored heads protruded like a bird, looked like a large cage filled with goldfinches. The owners of the heads tried to see something very significant that was happening on the roof. It was as impossible as seeing one's own ears without a mirror. Such a mirror for these people, who wanted to see their own roof from their own house, was the crowd raging in the square. She saw everything, screamed, waved her arms: some expressed delight, others - indignation.
There was a small figure moving along the roof. She slowly, carefully and confidently descended the slope of the triangular top of the house. Iron rattled under her feet.
She waved her cloak, catching her balance, like a circus tightrope walker catching her balance with a yellow Chinese umbrella.
It was the gymnast Tibul.
The people shouted:
Bravo, Tibul! Bravo, Tibul!
- Hold on! Remember how you walked the tightrope at the fair...
He won't fall! He's the best gymnast in the country...
It's not the first time for him. We have seen how adept he is at tightrope walking.
Bravo, Tibul!
- Run! Save yourself! Release Prospero!
Others were outraged. They shook their fists.
“You can’t run away, you pathetic buffoon!”
- Plut!
- Rebel! You will be shot like a hare...
- Watch out! We will drag you from the roof to the chopping block. Ten blocks will be ready tomorrow!
Tibul continued his terrible path.
– Where did he come from? people asked. How did he come to this square? How did he get on the roof?
“He escaped from the hands of the guardsmen,” replied the Others. - He fled, disappeared, then he was seen in different parts cities - he climbed over the roofs. He is as agile as a cat. His art was useful to him. No wonder the fame of him spread throughout the country.
Guards appeared on the square. Onlookers ran to the side streets. Tibul stepped over the barrier and stood on the ledge. He held out his cloaked hand. The green cloak fluttered like a banner.
With the same cloak, in the same tights, sewn from yellow and black triangles, the people got used to seeing him during performances at fairs and Sunday festivities. Now high up under the glass dome, small, thin and striped, he looked like a wasp crawling along the white wall of the house. When the cloak was inflated, it seemed that the wasp was opening its green shiny wings.
"Now you're going to fall, you bastard!" Now you will be shot! - shouted the tipsy dandy, who inherited from the freckled aunt.
The guards have chosen a convenient position. The officer was running extremely worried. In his hands he held a pistol. His spurs were as long as runners.
There was complete silence. The doctor grabbed his heart, which jumped like an egg in boiling water.
Tibul lingered for a second on the ledge. He needed to get to the opposite side of the square - then he could run from the Star Square towards the workers' quarters.
The officer stood in the middle of the square on a flower bed full of yellow and blue flowers. There was a pool and a fountain spouting from a round stone bowl.
- Stop! the officer said to the soldiers. “I will shoot him myself. I'm the best shooter in the regiment. Learn how to shoot!
From nine houses, on all sides, to the middle of the dome, to the Star, stretched nine steel cables (wires, thick as a sea rope).
It seemed that from the lantern, from the blazing magnificent Star, nine long black rays were flying over the area.
It is not known what Tibul was thinking at that moment. But, probably, he decided this way: “I will cross over the square along this wire, as I walked on a tightrope at the fair. I won't fall. One wire stretches to the lantern, the other - from the lantern to the opposite house. Having passed along both wires, I will reach the opposite roof and be saved.
The officer raised his pistol and took aim. Tibul walked along the cornice to the place where the wire began, separated from the wall and moved along the wire to the lantern.
The crowd gasped.
He walked very slowly, then suddenly started almost running, stepping quickly and carefully, swaying, arms outstretched. Every minute it looked like he was going to fall. Now his shadow appeared on the wall. The more he approached the lantern, the lower the shadow fell along the wall, and the larger and paler it became.
There was an abyss below.
And when he was in the middle of the way to the lantern, the voice of an officer was heard in complete silence:
- Now I'm going to shoot. It will fly straight into the pool. One two Three!
The shot boomed.
Tibul continued to walk, but for some reason the officer fell right into the pool.
He was killed.
One of the guards held a pistol, from which blue smoke was coming out. He shot the officer.
- Dog! – said the guardsman. “You wanted to kill a friend of the people. I prevented it. Long live the people!
- Long live the people! - supported him by other guardsmen.
Long live the Three Fat Men! shouted their opponents.
They scattered in all directions and opened fire on a man who was walking along the wire.
He was already two steps away from the lantern. With a wave of his cloak, Tibul protected his eyes from the glare. Bullets flew past. The crowd roared in delight.
Bach! Bach!
- Past!
- Hooray! Past!
Tibul climbed onto the ring that surrounded the lantern.
- Nothing! shouted the guards. - He will go to the other side ... He will go along the other wire. From there we will take it off!
Something happened here that no one expected. The striped figure, which had turned black in the glare of the lantern, sat down on a green ring, turned a lever, something clicked, tinkled, and the lantern instantly went out. Nobody got a chance to say a word. It became terribly dark and terribly still, as in a chest.
And the next minute, high, high, something again knocked and rang. A pale square opened up in the dark dome. Everyone saw a piece of the sky with two small stars. Then a black figure crawled into this square, against the background of the sky, and it was heard how someone quickly ran along the glass dome.
Gymnast Tibul escaped from the Star Square through a hatch.
The horses were frightened by the shots and the sudden darkness.
The doctor's crew almost capsized. The coachman turned sharply and took the doctor in a roundabout way.
Thus, having experienced an extraordinary day and an extraordinary night, Dr. Gaspard Arnery returned home at last. His housekeeper, Aunt Ganymede, met him on the porch. She was very excited. Indeed, the doctor has been absent for such a long time! Aunt Ganymede clasped her hands, groaned, shook her head.
– Where are your glasses?.. Did they break? Oh doctor, doctor! Where is your cloak?.. Have you lost it? Ahah!..
“Aunt Ganymede, besides, I broke off both heels…”
- Oh, what a misfortune!
“A worse misfortune happened today, Aunt Ganymede: the gunsmith Prospero was captured. They put him in an iron cage.
Aunt Ganymede knew nothing of what happened during the day. She heard cannon fire, she saw the glow over the houses. A neighbor told her that a hundred carpenters were building blocks for the rebels in the Court Square.
- I became very scared. I closed the shutters and decided not to go anywhere. I've been waiting for you every minute. I was very worried... Lunch got cold, dinner got cold, but you're still not here... - she added.
The night is over. The doctor went to bed.
Among the hundred sciences he studied was history. The doctor had a large leather-bound book. In this book, he wrote down his thoughts on important events.
“You have to be careful,” the doctor said, holding up a finger.
And, despite his fatigue, the doctor took his leather book, sat down at the table and began to write.
“Craftsmen, miners, sailors - all the poor working people of the city rose up against the power of the Three Fat Men. The guards won. The gunsmith Prospero is taken prisoner, and the gymnast Tibul fled. Just now, in the Square of the Star, a guardsman shot his officer. This means that soon all the soldiers will refuse to fight against the people and protect the Three Fat Men. However, one has to fear for the fate of Tibul ... "
Then the doctor heard a noise behind him. He looked back. There was a fireplace. Came out of the fireplace tall man in a green coat. It was the gymnast Tibul.
PART TWO
DOLL OF THE HEIR TUTTI
Chapter 4
AN AMAZING ADVENTURE OF THE BALLOON SELLER
The next day, work was in full swing in the Court Square: carpenters were building ten blocks. A convoy of guards supervised the work. The carpenters did their job without much desire.
– We do not want to build chopping blocks for artisans and miners! they were outraged.
These are our brothers!
“They went to their deaths to free all who work!”
– Shut up! - shouted the head of the convoy in such a terrible voice that the boards prepared for construction fell from screaming. - Be silent, or I will order you to whip with whips!
In the morning, crowds of people from different directions were heading towards the Court Square.
Dul strong wind, dust flew, signs swayed and gnashed, hats fell off their heads and rolled under the wheels of jumping carriages.
In one place, due to the wind, a completely incredible incident happened: the seller of children's balloons was blown into the air by balloons.
- Hooray! Hooray! the children shouted as they watched the fantastic flight.
They clapped their hands: firstly, the spectacle was interesting in itself, and secondly, some pleasantness for the children lay in the unpleasant position of the flying seller of balloons. Children have always envied this seller. Envy is a bad feeling. But what to do! The balloons, red, blue, yellow, looked great. Everyone would like to have such a ball. The seller had a whole bunch of them. But there are no miracles! Not a single boy, the most obedient, and not a single girl, the most attentive, the seller has ever given a single ball in his life: neither red, nor blue, nor yellow.
Now fate punished him for callousness. He flew over the city, hanging on a rope to which the balls were tied. High in the sparkling blue sky they looked like a magical flying bunch of colorful grapes.
- Guard! the salesman shouted, hoping for nothing and kicking his legs.
On his feet were straw shoes, too big for him. As long as he walked the earth, everything went smoothly. To keep his shoes from falling off, he dragged his feet along the pavement like a lazybones. And now, having found himself in the air, he could no longer resort to this trick.
- Hell!
A bunch of balloons, whirring and creaking, dangled in the wind.
One shoe did fall off.
- Look! Chinese walnut! Chinese walnut! shouted the children running downstairs.
Indeed, the fallen shoe resembled a Chinese walnut.
A dance teacher was walking along the street at that time. He seemed very graceful. He was long, with a small round head, with thin legs - he looked either like a violin or like a grasshopper. His delicate ear, accustomed to the sad voice of the flute and the gentle words of the dancers, could not endure the loud, cheerful cries of the children.
- Stop screaming! he got angry. How can you scream so loud! You need to express delight with beautiful, melodic phrases ... Well, for example ...
He took a pose, but did not have time to give an example. Like any dance teacher, he had a habit of looking mainly down at his feet. Alas! He didn't see what was going on upstairs.
The salesman's shoe fell on his head. His head was small, and a large straw shoe fell on her like a hat.
At this point, the elegant dance teacher howled like a lazy ox driver. The shoe covered half of the face.
Children clutched their stomachs:
– Ha-ha-ha! Ha ha ha!
Dance teacher Razdvatris
I usually looked down.
The teacher squeaked like a rat
He had a long nose
And now to the nose of Razdvatris
The straw shoe has grown!
So the boys sang, sitting on the fence, ready at any moment to fall on the other side and fly away.
– Ah! moaned the dance teacher. - Oh, how I suffer! And at least a ball shoe, otherwise such a disgusting, rough shoe!
It ended with the dance teacher being arrested.
“My dear,” they said to him, “your sight excites horror. You are breaking public silence. This should not be done at all, and even more so in such an alarming time.
The dance teacher wringed his hands.
- What a lie! he sobbed. - What a slander! I, a man who lives among waltzes and smiles, I, whose very figure is like treble clef- How can I break the public silence? Oh!.. Oh!..
What happened next with the dance teacher is unknown. And finally, it's not interesting. It is much more important to find out what happened to the flying balloon salesman.
He flew like a good dandelion.
- It's outrageous! the salesman yelled. - I don't want to fly! I just can't fly...
Everything was useless. The wind was getting stronger. The pile of balls rose higher and higher. The wind drove her out of town, towards the Palace of the Three Fat Men.
Sometimes the seller managed to look down. Then he saw roofs, tiles that looked like dirty nails, quarters, blue narrow water, little people and green porridge of gardens. The city turned under him, as if pinned down.
Things took a bad turn.
"A little more, and I will fall into the park of the Three Fat Men!" - the seller was horrified.
And the next minute he slowly, importantly and beautifully swam over the park, sinking lower and lower. The wind calmed down.
“Perhaps I’ll sit down on the ground now. They will seize me, first they will beat me thoroughly, and then they will put me in prison or, in order not to mess around, they will immediately cut off my head.
Nobody saw him. Only from one tree frightened birds jumped in all directions. A light, airy shadow, similar to the shadow of a cloud, fell from a flying heap of multi-colored balls. Shining with iridescent cheerful colors, she glided along the gravel path, over the flower bed, over the statue of a boy sitting astride a goose, and over a guardsman who fell asleep on the clock. And from this, miraculous changes occurred with the face of the guardsman. Immediately his nose turned blue, like a dead man's, then green, like a conjurer's, and finally red, like a drunkard's. So, changing color, glass pieces are poured in a kaleidoscope.
The fateful moment was approaching: the seller was heading towards the open windows of the palace. He had no doubt that he would now fly into one of them, like a feather.
And so it happened.
The seller flew in through the window. And the window turned out to be the window of the palace kitchen. It was a pastry shop.
Today, at the Palace of the Three Fat Men, a ceremonial breakfast was supposed to be held on the occasion of the successful suppression of yesterday's rebellion. After breakfast, the Three Fat Men, the entire Council of State, retinue and honored guests were going to go to Court Square.
My friends, getting into the palace confectionery is a very tempting business. Fat men knew a lot about dishes. Moreover, the case was exceptional. Parade breakfast! Can you imagine what interesting work made today by palace cooks and confectioners.
Flying into the confectionery, the seller felt both horror and delight at the same time. So, probably, a wasp flying on a cake displayed on the window by a carefree hostess is horrified and delighted.
He flew for one minute, he did not have time to see anything properly. At first it seemed to him that he was in some amazing poultry house, where they were busy singing and whistling, hissing and crackling, colorful precious birds. southern countries.
And the next moment he thought that this was not a poultry house, but a fruit stand full of tropical fruits, crushed, oozing, filled with own juice. A sweet, dizzying fragrance hit his nose; heat and stuffiness ate his throat.
Everything is already mixed up here: an amazing poultry house, and a fruit shop.
The seller from all over sat down in something soft and warm. He did not release balls - he held the rope tightly. The balls stopped motionless above his head.
He closed his eyes and decided not to open them, not for anything in his life.
“Now I understand everything,” he thought: “this is not a poultry house or a fruit shop. This is a confectionery. And I'm sitting in a cake!
So it was.
He sat in the kingdom of chocolate, oranges, pomegranates, cream, candied fruit, powdered sugar and jam, and sat on the throne, like the ruler of a fragrant multi-colored kingdom. The cake was the throne.
He did not open his eyes. He expected an incredible scandal, a storm - and was ready for anything. But something happened that he never expected.
“The cake is dead,” the junior confectioner said sternly and sadly.
Then there was silence. Only bursting bubbles on the boiling chocolate.
- What will happen? whispered the seller of balloons, choking with fear and squeezing his eyelids painfully.
His heart skipped a beat like a penny in a piggy bank.
- Nonsense! – said the senior confectioner just as sternly. - The second course was eaten in the hall. Twenty minutes later, the cake should be served. colorful balls and the stupid mug of a flying villain will serve as a wonderful decoration for a formal cake. - And, having said this, the confectioner yelled: - Let's cream!
And indeed gave cream.
What was it!
Three confectioners and twenty cooks attacked the salesman with a zeal worthy of the praise of the fattest of the Three Fat Men. In one minute, he was surrounded on all sides. He sat with his eyes closed, he did not see anything, but the sight was monstrous. He was covered up completely. The head, a round mug like a teapot painted with daisies, stuck out. The rest was covered with white cream, which had a lovely pink hue. The salesman might have seemed anything, but he had lost his resemblance to himself, as he had lost his straw shoe.
The poet could now take him for a swan in snow-white plumage, the gardener for a marble statue, the laundress for a mountain of soapy foam, and the naughty for a snowman.
There were balls at the top. The decoration was out of the ordinary, but, however, all together made up a rather interesting picture.
“So,” said the chief confectioner in the tone of an artist admiring his own painting. And then the voice, just like the first time, became fierce, and the confectioner yelled: - Candied fruit!
Candied fruit appeared. All varieties, all types, all shapes: bitter, vanilla, sour, triangular, stars, round, crescents, roses.
The cooks worked with might and main. Before the chief confectioner had time to clap his hands three times, the whole pile of cream, the whole cake turned out to be studded with candied fruit.
- Ready! - said the chief confectioner. “Now, perhaps, we need to put it in the oven to brown it a little.
"To the oven! - the seller was horrified. - What? Which oven? Me in the oven?!”
Just then one of the servants ran into the candy store.
- Cake! Cake! he shouted. - Immediately cake! Sweet things are waiting in the hall.
- Ready! - answered the chief confectioner.
"Well, thank God!" the seller thought. Now he opened his eyes a little.
Six servants in blue livery lifted the huge platter on which he was sitting. They carried him. Already moving away, he heard the cooks laughing at him.
He was carried up the wide stairs to the hall. The salesman closed his eyes again for a second. The hall was noisy and fun. Many voices sounded, laughter thundered, applause was heard. By all indications, the ceremonial breakfast was a success.
The seller, or rather the cake, was brought and placed on the table.
Then the seller opened his eyes.
And then he saw the Three Fat Men.
They were so thick that the salesman opened his mouth.
“We need to close it immediately,” he immediately realized. “In my position, it’s better not to show signs of life.”
But, alas, the mouth did not close. This went on for two minutes. Then the surprise of the seller decreased. With an effort, he closed his mouth. But then the eyes immediately widened. With great difficulty, closing his mouth and then his eyes in turn, he finally overcame his surprise.
End of free trial.
The time for wizards is over. In all likelihood, they never actually existed. All this is fiction and fairy tales for very young children. It's just that some magicians were able to deceive all sorts of onlookers so cleverly that these magicians were mistaken for sorcerers and wizards.
There was such a doctor. His name was Gaspar Arneri. A naive person, a fair reveller, a half-educated student could also take him for a magician. In fact, this doctor did such amazing things that they really looked like miracles. Of course, he had nothing to do with wizards and charlatans who fooled too gullible people.
Dr. Gaspard Arneri was a scientist. Perhaps he studied about a hundred sciences. In any case, there was no one in the country wiser and more learned than Gaspard Arnery.
Everyone knew about his scholarship: the miller, the soldiers, the ladies, and the ministers. And the schoolchildren sang a whole song about him with this refrain:
How to fly from earth to the stars
How to catch a fox by the tail
How to make steam out of stone, -
Our doctor Gaspar knows.
One summer, in June, when the weather was very fine, Dr. Gaspard Arnery decided to go on a long walk to collect some species of grasses and beetles.
Dr. Gaspard was a middle-aged man and therefore was afraid of rain and wind. When he left the house, he wrapped a thick scarf around his neck, put on goggles against dust, took a cane so as not to stumble, and generally went for a walk with great precautions.
This time the day was wonderful: the sun did nothing but shine; the grass was so green that there was even a sensation of sweetness in the mouth; dandelions flew, birds whistled; a light breeze fluttered like an airy ball gown.
“That’s good,” said the doctor, “but you still need to take a raincoat, because the summer weather is deceptive. It can start raining.
The doctor took care of the household chores, blew on his glasses, grabbed his box, like a suitcase, made of green leather, and left.
The most interesting places were outside the city - where the Palace of the Three Fat Men was located. The doctor visited these places most often. The Palace of the Three Fat Men stood in the middle of a huge park. The park was surrounded by deep channels. Black iron bridges hung over the canals. The bridges were guarded by the palace guards - guardsmen in black oilcloth hats with yellow feathers. Meadows covered with flowers, groves and ponds swirled around the park to the very heavenly line. This was a great place to walk. Here grew the most interesting species of grass, here the most beautiful beetles rang and the most skillful birds sang.
“But walking is a long way. I will go to the city rampart and hire a cab. He will take me to the palace park, thought the doctor.
There were more people near the city rampart than usual.
“Is today Sunday? the doctor doubted. - I don't think. Today is Tuesday".
The doctor stepped closer.
The whole area was crowded with people. The doctor saw craftsmen in gray cloth jackets with green cuffs; sailors with faces the color of clay; wealthy townspeople in colored waistcoats, with their wives whose skirts looked like rose bushes; merchants with decanters, trays, ice cream makers and braziers; skinny street actors, green, yellow and motley, as if sewn from a patchwork quilt; very small guys pulling red funny dogs by the tails.
Everyone crowded in front of the city gates. Huge, house-high, iron gates were tightly closed.
"Why are the gates closed?" the doctor was surprised.
The crowd was noisy, everyone was talking loudly, shouting, cursing, but it was really impossible to make out anything.
The doctor approached a young woman holding a fat gray cat on her arm and asked:
– Please, explain: what is going on here? Why are there so many people, what is the reason for their excitement and why are the city gates closed?
“Guards don’t let people out of the city…
Why aren't they released?
- So that they do not help those who have already left the city and went to the Palace of the Three Fat Men ...
“I don’t understand anything, citizen, and I ask you to forgive me…”
“Ah, don’t you know that today the gunsmith Prospero and the gymnast Tibul led the people to storm the Palace of the Three Fat Men?”
“Prospero the gunsmith?”
- Yes, citizen ... The rampart is high, and on the other side guards riflemen sat down. No one will leave the city, and those who went with the gunsmith Prospero will be killed by the palace guards.
Indeed, several very distant shots rang out.
The woman dropped the fat cat. The cat plopped down like raw dough. The crowd roared.
“So I missed such a significant event,” thought the doctor. “It’s true, I didn’t leave the room for a whole month. I worked in lockdown. I didn't know anything..."
At this time, even farther, the cannon hit several times. Thunder bounced like a ball and rolled in the wind. Not only the doctor was frightened and hurriedly retreated a few steps - the whole crowd shied away and fell apart. The children cried; the pigeons flew away with a flurry of wings; the dogs sat down and howled.
Heavy cannon fire began. The noise rose unimaginable. The crowd pressed on the gate and shouted:
- Prospero! Prospero!
“Down with the Three Fat Men!”
Dr. Gaspar was completely taken aback. He was recognized in the crowd because many knew him by sight. Some rushed to him, as if seeking protection from him. But the doctor almost cried himself.
– What is going on there? How would you know what is going on there, behind the gate? Maybe the people are winning; Or maybe they've all been shot.
Then about ten people ran in the direction where three narrow streets began from the square. On the corner was a house with a tall old tower. Together with the rest, the doctor decided to climb the tower. Downstairs was a laundry room, similar to a bathhouse. It was as dark as a basement there. A spiral staircase led up. Light penetrated through the narrow windows, but there was very little of it, and everyone climbed slowly, with great difficulty, especially since the staircase was torn and with broken railings. It is easy to imagine how much work and excitement it cost Dr. Gaspard to climb to the top floor. In any case, on the twentieth step, in the darkness, his cry was heard:
“Ah, my heart is bursting, and I have lost my heel!”
The doctor lost his cloak even on the square, after the tenth shot from the cannon.
At the top of the tower was a platform surrounded by stone railings. From here, there was a view of at least fifty kilometers around. There was no time to admire the view, although the view deserved it. Everyone looked in the direction where the battle was taking place.
- I have binoculars. I always carry 8-glass binoculars with me. Here it is, - said the doctor and unfastened the strap.
Binoculars passed from hand to hand.
Dr. Gaspar saw a lot of people in the green space. They ran towards the city. They ran away. From a distance, people looked like colorful flags. Guardsmen on horseback chased the people.
Dr. Gaspar thought it all looked like a picture of a magic lantern. The sun shone brightly, the greenery shone. The bombs exploded like pieces of cotton wool, the flames appeared for one second, as if someone was letting sunbeams into the crowd. The horses prancing, rearing up and spinning like a top.
The park and the Palace of the Three Fat Men were shrouded in white transparent smoke.
- They run!
“They are running… The people are defeated!”
The fleeing people were approaching the city. Entire heaps of people fell along the road. It seemed that multi-colored shreds were pouring onto the greens.
The bomb whistled over the square.
Someone, frightened, dropped the binoculars. The bomb exploded, and everyone who was at the top of the tower rushed back down, inside the tower.
