The Man Who Was Magic Read Free

right-hand side, go two streets left and three right, beyond the house with the five gables,” and so forth and so on.
    Adam and Mopsy moved off trying to follow the directions and soon were a part of the throng filled with holiday spirit. The city, gay with flags and bunting, hummed, bustled and seethed with magic. Everyone was not only thinking and talking magic, but doing it as well. It seemed impossible for two prestidigitators to encounter one another upon the street without producing some kind of a trick, or a bit of sleight of hand.
    Adam saw a pair meet, doff their silk toppers and bow to one another with old-world courtesy. One dipped into his hat and pulled out a live white rabbit which he gave to his friend, who immediately reciprocated by reaching into his own for a fine-looking chicken in exchange. They then stowed the creatures somewhere about their persons where they seemed to disappear, chatted for a moment and passed on.
    “Jolly good,” commented Adam.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” said Mopsy. “You can do better than that.”
    Another pair paused for a moment. “Care for a smoke?” one asked the other.
    “Don’t mind if I do.”
    “Cigar? Cigarette? Pipe?”
    “Anything that’s going.”
    Whereupon the first magician made a swift pass with his hand, faster than any eye could follow, and there, between his fingers, was a lighted cigarette which he proffered to his friend. “Your brand, I believe.”
    “Quite so. How very kind.”
    Little knots at corners were being invited by this or that magician to pick a card. No passer-by was able to do something as simple as reaching into his pocket for a handkerchief with which to blow his nose. Instead he would produce dozens of them, in every color.
    Even the youngest children on the street instead of carrying dolls or teddy bears, or towing toys on wheels behind them, played and practiced interminably with nests of boxes, pieces of rope, flags, coins, paper sacks, or bits of silk and filled the air with their cries of, “Look! Watch me! See what I can do!” or, “Here, have you seen this one?” and, “Let me show you.”
    Thus both bewildered and fascinated by the novelty of the environment and the inhabitants, Adam completely forgot the Gatekeeper’s instructions and he and Mopsy shortly found themselves in a maze of narrow, side alleys and crooked houses, thoroughly lost. Nor did there seem to be anyone whom they could ask for the part of the town where they now found themselves appeared to be empty and deserted.
    When they came to the next corner, Adam simply did not know which way to go. In his mind he flipped a coin which came down heads and so, turning left, he passed by an open window where, sitting upon the floor inside, he saw a little girl with brown hair but he did not notice that she was dissolved in tears.

III

    J ANE
    F or there was one child in Mageia who was not a member of the happy, carefree throng that Adam had seen elsewhere in the city in holiday mood, and most certainly she should have been, for she was the daughter of The Great Robert, Mayor of Mageia, Chief Magician, Chairman of the Board and President of the Guild of Master Magicians. Her name was Jane and she was eleven and a half years old.
    All the resplendent titles of The Great Robert indicated what an important person he was, but did not show that in his home he was sometimes not exactly the best of fathers.
    To meet him, he was a huge, imposing-looking man with an affable manner and a too-ready smile and handshake, coupled with piercing eyes and a flattering way that people found irresistible. He was also a superb magician; indeed no one in the community knew more about stage magic than he, unless perhaps it was old Professor Alexander who was almost ninety and still active. But his public image which was wonderful for getting votes was quite different from that of his private one when with his family.
    And at this particular time it so happened that home relationships