by Paul Gallico
The Great Robert looked down sharply at Mopsy who was sitting at Adam’s feet, the top of his nose and one eye just showing through the curtain of hair. “What was all that noise?” he asked.
Adam replied, “He remarked that he’d never heard a more genuine and warm-hearted speech of welcome and he thanks you from the bottom of his heart, as do I.”
There was an appreciative patter of applause. It was remarkable how everyone seemed to accept what Adam said Mopsy was saying, or had said, but there it was.
Peter laughed, “Bad luck on you, mister. If I know my sister, she’s guaranteed to wreck your routine whatever it is.”
“Well,” said Adam cheerfully, “we shall just have to take that chance.”
“I wouldn’t give you much for him as a brother,” added Mopsy.
Truth to tell, The Great Robert had been thinking along the same lines as his son and was not displeased. While he felt he had cut a good figure in this rather unusual turn the eliminations had taken, the redheaded young man was making him somewhat nervous and he was looking forward to getting rid of him as quickly as possible. Certainly, clad as he was and with no props of any kind visible, it wasn’t going to be much of a trick he would be able to produce. “Well then,” he said, “let’s get on with it. What was it you were proposing to do? Oh yes, you were going to show us all some ‘Honest Magic.’ What’s it to be?”
Jane whispered, “Adam, what are you going to do? How can I assist you if I don’t know?”
Adam said, “Shsh Jane, I’m thinking. Just do as I ask,” to which Mopsy added, “That’s right, can’t you see? He’s thinking.”
Which Adam was indeed, for he was wondering what he might do to impress all these mighty magicians, in order to become a Member of their select Guild. He bowed his chin into one hand for a moment, reflecting, and suddenly remembered something the old Gatekeeper had said: “Novelty is what they’re looking for, and originality, rather than something complicated.”
Adam raised his head and began, “I would just like to offer a bit of rather ordinary magic, something plain and rather silly, but which perhaps you might not have seen before. Could anyone lend me an egg, please?”
“Ha!” exclaimed Malvolio, who had just been waiting to pounce, because for no reason at all except the kind of person he was, he had taken a thorough dislike to the young novice magician. “Borrow an egg? Haven’t you got one of your own? You’re supposed to bring your own props.”
Mephisto commented, “If you were anything of a magician you ought to be able to produce an egg out of your mouth, or from the air. That’s one of the simplest things.”
Abdul Hamid smiled his oily smile. “Ha-ha! He vants to borrow an egg! I moof ve dequalify him.”
The Great Robert was in agreement with these sentiments, even though he did not like the way Malvolio was butting in and taking over his prerogatives of Chairman. But before he could say anything, old Professor Alexander asked, “Might I inquire why the young man wishes to borrow an egg, instead of bringing one of his own?”
“Certainly, sir,” Adam replied. “Because I prefer not to touch it.”
“Exactly what I thought,” said the Professor. “Malvolio, you know it’s well within our rules for a magician to be permitted to borrow an object. We are always asking, ‘Will a gentleman in the audience lend us his watch, or a dollar bill, or a ring.’ The young man’s quite within his rights.”
The more fair-minded Magicians on the Council were nodding their heads and the others subsided sullenly.
One of the younger candidates who had already performed his trick, came forward and said, “I can let you have one. I always bring a spare in case of accidents,” and he proffered Adam a glass bowl in which reposed an ordinary, brown egg.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you indeed,” Adam said, but refrained from touching either. “Now, Jane, would you take them to the Honored Judges, please.”
Peter muttered, “Bet you she breaks it.”
But Jane did not. Enveloped by the calm of Adam’s manner, she was no longer thinking or worried about herself, but only intent upon carrying out his instructions. She accepted the bowl with the egg and placed it on the table.
“Would you examine it, please?” Adam requested.
The articles were passed from hand to hand.
While they were thus engaged, Mopsy asked, “Which one are you going to do?”
“You remember,” Adam replied, “the easy one.”
“Oh, Humpty Dumpty?”
“Yes.”
“That’ll open their eyes.”
The Great Robert said, “Well, we’re all agreed, it’s an ordinary bowl and, as far as we can see, an ordinary egg.”
“Would you be so kind as to mark it, then?” Adam requested.
“What’s that? What do you mean?”
“With your signature, perhaps,” Adam suggested.
“Ha!” snarled Malvolio savagely, “with pleasure! The fool is cooking his own goose. Give it to me.”
He took the egg and scrawled, “Malvolio the Mighty” across the length of it and then handed it to his henchman, who wrote, “Mephisto the Mysterious” on the other side.
“Now, Jane,” Adam asked, “will you be so good as to go over to the table and very carefully break the egg into the bowl, evenly, and put the two halves of the shell down by its side?”
Jane did as she was asked; cracking the egg into the dish where everyone could see that it was indeed quite a commonplace one, with a round, yellow yolk surrounded by the transparent white and put down the two halves of the empty shell.
Adam had been standing well away from the table but he then strolled off a still farther distance before saying, “Excellent, Jane. I think now we shall want our egg scrambled. Here, take this fork and beat it up properly, the way your mother does before making an omelette,” and he tossed a glittering, silver fork through the air to her, where she made an easy, graceful catch of it.
By now everyone was so fascinated with what was going on that nobody, not even Jane, thought either to ask or wonder from whence the fork had come.
The huge Council Chamber was absolutely silent with no sound but that of the utensil against the sides of the bowl, as obediently she whipped up the egg until the yolk and white were mingled in a proper, light yellow froth.
“Splendid,” said Adam. “I’m sure you’re a very good cook.”
“See here,” snapped Malvolio, “who’s doing this trick, you or the kid?”
“You’ll find out,” Mopsy growled.
“Both of us,” Adam replied unruffled. “But perhaps I’d better take over now. Jane, if you’ll just let me have the fork.”
He went to the table, took it from her fingers and quietly and gently began to unscramble the egg. At least that’s what seemed to be happening. For with the reverse of the movements with which Jane had stirred it up, Adam appeared to be unstirring it. The froth subsided, the light yellow changed to dark again and there was the whole yolk once more, reposing in its liquid bed of white.
Adam put the fork down and took up the two halves of the eggshell, one in each hand. “Jane, will be so kind and carefully let the egg slip back where it came from. Gently now! That’s splendid!”
For Jane, not at all nervous, had tipped the glass bowl and let its contents slide into each half of the shell.
“Say the magic words,” commanded Adam.
“Higgledy-piggledy-parabaloo!” cried Jane.
Before a drop of white could be spilled, Adam clapped the two halves together, held up the egg in his fingers and then placed it upon the table; whole again, uncracked, not even seamed, not so much as a trace to show that it had ever been broken and with the signatures of Mephisto and Malvolio intact.
“Ha-ha!” laughed Mopsy. “How did you like that? It was the easy one. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve cooked the egg and then unscrambled it as well.”
IX
HUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN
The
hush that had fallen upon the Council Room remained unbroken. At the Judges’ table the thirteen Magicians were staring at the egg, their eyes popping from their heads as though it was something alive that might bite them.
Then slowly, The Great Robert picked it up, turned it this way and that in his fingers and then exclaimed, “But it’s impossible!”
“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Mopsy. “So was Humpty Dumpty. Shall I say it for you? ‘Humpty Dumpty sat . . .’ ”
“Not now, Mopsy,” Adam cautioned, causing the Chief Magician to say, “What? What’s going on between you? I won’t have it!”
“He was only going to recite ‘Humpty Dumpty,’ Your Worship. I’ve told him he mustn’t.”
“Oh, he mustn’t, eh?” The Great Robert said suspiciously. “Why, what’s Humpty Dumpty got to do with it? I insist upon knowing.”
“Would you recite it for us, then, Jane?” Adam asked.
Jane suppressed a giggle, folded her hands, closed her eyes and began in a sing-song:
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses
And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
The expressions on the faces of most of the panel of Judges were quite blank, and Zerbo remarked, “I can’t see what all that has to do with it.”
Jane shouted with laughter this time and cried, “Why Humpty Dumpty was an egg, of course! Everybody knows that. When he fell and broke, all the King’s horses and men couldn’t get him together again. Nobody can put an egg back togeth . . .” Here she stopped suddenly in mid-sentence, her laughter dying and she threw a curious look at Adam.
All the Magicians were regarding Adam with various thoughts, feelings and emotions going on inside them. For the fact was that he had unscrambled an egg and put it back together again.
“I’ll just have a little look at that,” Malvolio said and taking up the egg, he produced a watchmaker’s magnifying glass from his pocket, screwed it into his eye and subjected the shell to the most intense scrutiny, particularly where he had signed his name. Then, before anyone could stop him, he cracked it on the edge of the table and let the contents once more slide into the bowl.
It was exactly as it had been before—a yellow yolk floating in its sea of white. A look of shock and surprise passed over Malvolio’s face, as if he had expected to catch out the stranger for having used some kind of fake, or substitute concealed upon his person. But there instead was the selfsame one and unquestionably genuine. Now a sly and cunning expression came into the eyes of the little Magician. “Let’s see you do it again,” he said.
“Let’s see you do it yourself,” barked Mopsy.
“If you’re such a hot magician,” Malvolio continued, “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind repeating the demonstration for us.”
“Oh no, no! Please don’t make him!” It was Jane who cried out suddenly and did not know why she had, except that she was frightened. And she did not understand what it was that had terrified her either, except she was aware that something strange and disturbing had happened—indeed was continuing to happen, something in the air she felt that was threatening to her new-found friend.
As the daughter of a great sleight-of-hand artist, she was certain that she had taken part in a wonderful piece of prestidigitation which must have needed a great deal of preparation. That fork, for instance, now that she remembered it, must have been hidden somewhere about his person and another egg as well, in advance, though how he had managed one with the signatures of two of the judges, she could not fathom.
But if this were true, as indeed it must be, then Adam would not have the mechanics of this marvelous trick prepared for a second performance and hence must fail. She could not bear to see him humiliated. Besides which, they were being unfair.
But Adam only acquiesced, smiling calmly, “Why, if you like then . . .”
“No!” The violent shout was accompanied by the crash of a fist upon the table, causing some of the pretty assistants to scream and almost everyone to jump six inches off his chair. “I say no!” It was old Professor Alexander who had leaped to his feet, spoken the words and thumped the table.
“What’s the matter with all of you?” he cried. “Malvolio, how dare you! You know the rules as well as anyone else—Never ask a magician to repeat a trick. You’ve just witnessed one of the finest pieces of sleight of hand I’ve seen since I was a boy. And there you are, like a bunch of dummies sitting on your hands, instead of acknowledging a master. I say, Bravo!” Here he clapped his palms together in the direction of Adam.
This verdict, coming from their senior and wisest Citizen-Magician, brought such a relief from tension and a secret dismay that had built up, that everyone in the room joined in the most thunderous applause with cheers and shouts of “Splendid!” “Beautiful!” “Well done!” as well. Of course it was only a very clever trick and now that Professor Alexander had set his seal of approval upon it, they told themselves they had known it all along.
But nevertheless, deep down, hardly to be acknowledged, they had entertained the thought: What if it had not been sleight of hand? What if it had not been a case of the hand-is-quicker-than-the-eye, but real, honest magic instead of one of their own illusions?
Professor Alexander still had the floor: “I move that Adam the Simple be admitted to the finals. And if Malvolio here had not destroyed the egg, I should have recommended depositing it in our Museum.”
There were more cheers and applause at this, and even the Judges, with the exception of Malvolio, joined in.
Now The Great Robert also rose to his feet, smooth and easy as ever, a friendly, genial smile upon his public countenance. In spite of his dislike and fear of Malvolio, he had been dying for Adam to accept the challenge, to see whether he could repeat the trick. But with the violent reaction of Professor Alexander, he had swiftly changed and now already other plans were beginning to form in his mind. “Adam the Simple, come forward!”
Adam did so, removing his cap respectfully.
Mopsy said, “Try not to laugh.”
Adam hissed, “Hush, you naughty little beast!”
The Great Robert orated in his best manner, “Adam the Simple, we welcome you to Mageia. You have passed your test and I have great pleasure in admitting you to the final trials for membership in our great Guild, tomorrow night. Fussmer, are you taking all that down?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you, Your Worship,” Adam said and then added, “And please, may Jane continue to be my assistant?”
The Great Robert pretended to reflect upon this, but he was delighted. For Adam thus was playing directly into his hands with the scheme forming in his head: how he might be able to find out for himself the secret of Adam’s sensational trick. Eventually he agreed. “Why yes, since she’s already done so well. I shall be very pleased. I should like at this time also to extend an invitation to come and stay with us in our happy home while you are in Mageia. My wife and I would be delighted to have you under our humble roof.”
Adam heard Mopsy mutter, “I wouldn’t trust the old buzzard. He’s got something up his sleeve besides his arm. Can’t we go to a hotel?”
“Mopsy, you’re impossible!”
“I beg your pardon?” said Robert.
“My dog was wondering whether he might be allowed to come too?”
“But of course. We should be honored to have such a clever animal in our midst, particularly since our dear Jane seems to have taken to him so.”
Now during this exchange with all eyes upon Adam and the Chief Magician, no one was aware that Malvolio had leaned over to Mephisto and whispered in his ear. “Don’t say anything now, but there’s something rotten going on here. We may all be in terrible danger. Meet me in the basement after the tests. Tell Hamid, Zerbo and Fussmer and anyone else who wants to come. But whatever you do, don’t let on to that old fool Robert.” To this Mephisto had nodded his assent
imperceptibly.
The Chief Magician was saying, “Well then, let’s get on. What is there left on the program?”
“Only one more, your honor,” Fussmer replied, and called off a name.
It turned out to be a young magician who produced a neat and simple routine with cards. But the truth was that everyone was still so overwhelmed at what had happened and relieved at the resolution of their secret fear, that he was quickly passed into the finals and the affair broke up with sandwiches and cold drinks being served. The candidates, as well as several members of the Council and guests, crowded around congratulating Adam and Jane, who was carrying Mopsy in her arms.
There was intense excitement throughout the gathering, now that their minds had been relieved of that sudden unacknowledged dread that what they had seen might have been something quite other than it appeared, and already little knots and groups were forming, discussing Adam’s turn and how it might have been done.
For while the majority of the magicians of Mageia were highly honorable and upright men who would not have dreamed of stealing a routine from a colleague or neighbor, it was perfectly legitimate if they managed to find out on their own the secret, or otherwise to duplicate it. It was then permissible for them to include it in their acts. Thus, they quite expected the newcomer to guard his method closely.
True, a number of them felt slightly put out that their Mayor, The Great Robert, had rather swept Adam into his orbit and out of theirs, for there was always the chance that the stranger might be willing to reveal his trick, in which case the Chief Magician would have the monopoly.
In the meantime, furtively, Mephisto was circulating among those he thought might lend an ear, whispering, “Meeting in the basement in an hour. Malvolio says matter of life and death. Better come, if you know what’s good for you.”
In the dark and devious mind of Malvolio, a new plot against The Great Robert was hatching. He was not at all satisfied with what old Professor Alexander had said about the trick with the egg. He saw himself as the only one there awake to the possibility that the stranger was far more than what he seemed—an apprentice, journeyman magician who had wandered to Mageia as had so many others. If he could prove it and alert all Mageia to the danger, he would soon enough be able to supplant The Great Robert as Chief of all the Magicians and Head of the Guild.