The Snake Stone

123

It took Yashim less than ten minutes to reach the theater, but he was aware as he arrived that he had traveled farther than he knew. A crowd had gathered on the street outside-the same crowd, he noticed with amusement, that turned out for street brawls, house fires, or public executions: the usual Greeks craning their necks for a better view, and the customary Turks in fezzes standing gravely with their hands by their sides; foreign loafers in tall black hats, who ran their fingers hopefully through their pockets, exchanged glances with busy-looking madrassa students in turbans, who had come to protest and had been intimidated by the nature and variety of the crowd. Much of the movement in the crowd was supplied by foreign ships’ crews, who seemed to haul themselves in toward the main gate by invisible warps. One knot of sailors Yashim recognized by their curious brimless caps, embroidered in gold with the word Ulysse.

Yashim worked his way slowly and unobtrusively forward in their wake until he reached the gate itself, where tickets were being sold in an atmosphere of ribald misunderstanding. A small, preternaturally wizened old man in a small turban was carefully examining the money people thrust toward him, with the help of Mina, whom Yashim recognized, leaning over the old man, volubly judging the quality of the coin by her interest in the faces of the men who tendered it. It looked like a full house.

Yashim found Preen backstage with beads of sweat on her forehead, pounding the air and talking very fast to a small, fat man wearing the biggest turban Yashim had ever seen. She caught sight of Yashim and stayed him with a gesture, still talking anxiously to the fat man, whose eyes appeared to be closed.

At last the fat man nodded solemnly, his whole turban tilting to and fro like a shipwreck, and withdrew.

“Chaos!” Preen muttered. “Pandemonium!” She smiled suddenly. “Always a good sign, Yashim. Where have you been?”

Yashim murmured a reply, then stepped back to allow a woman in European dress with a monkey on her shoulder to address Preen in a low, urgent voice. Preen gave her some brisk assurance, then wheeled to face a deputation of musicians, who were complaining that they didn’t have space to perform. Mina came in, looking flushed and triumphant, and whispered something in Preen’s ear. Preen nodded absently. Mina waved at Yashim.

Yashim took a seat at a cafe table to watch the performance. It was vulgar, loud, and a great success. The lady ventriloquist and her monkey; a snake charmer; an extravagantly pretty girl dressed as an odalisque, who sang and danced and, later, reappeared to be sawn in half by a Russian magician; interspersed with several interesting tableaux vivants-a Frankish home, a wolf hunt in the Carpathians, and an assignation in a Persian garden, in which scene the lady seemed to be represented by a small jeweled slipper. In the meantime the audience was served with coffee, tea, sherbet, and chibouques by slim, pantalooned dancers, and everyone talked nonstop, between applause.

Halfway through the second act, Preen slid gracefully into the seat beside Yashim. She put an elbow on the cafe table and spoke into her hand.

“Small world,” she said. “Your friend Alexander Mavrogordato just arrived.”

Yashim suppressed the urge to turn around. “Alone?”

“He’s with a man. A Frank. Older, short. Smoking a little cigar.”

Yashim exhaled slowly through his teeth. Onstage, a drowsy cobra was rising slowly from a basket while an Indian blew at it through a little pipe. The snake turned its head to follow the music. The Indian danced gravely around the basket. Yashim turned in his chair and saw Alexander Mavrogordato and Maximilien Lefevre, ne Meyer, watching the performance without speaking.

Lefevre’s eyes slid toward him.

The cobra’s head was now lifted high out of the basket, swaying on its thick, undulating body. Behind its head, the hood flattened and widened.

Lefevre and Yashim looked at one another. Without smiling, the Frenchman nodded and made a slight gesture of salute with his cigar.

Yashim shook his head. Then he blinked and turned his attention to the stage.

The charmer and the snake were now moving together; as the Indian swayed backward, the cobra leaned out toward him, its little tongue flicking in and out. The Indian slowly put out his hand, palm down, until the tips of his fingers were just below the cobra’s throat. Very gradually, to the soft notes of the pipe, the cobra laid his head on the man’s fingers.

Yashim watched in disgust as the man’s hand turned slowly black: the cobra was rippling forward onto the man’s wrist, its hood over his hand, slowly advancing out of its basket and up the extended arm, oozing upward from the basket to the charmer’s shoulder. The Indian continued to play his pipe with one hand, keeping his arm very still until the entire snake had ranged itself along the thickness of his arm. He turned and faced the crowd. There was a gasp as the snake’s head appeared over the charmer’s head and reared up, spreading its hood like a pagan crown.

The man and his snake did a little tour of the stage, bowing together; then the man reached up and took hold of the cobra by its head and slipped it back into the basket, clapping on the lid. The audience broke into applause.

“Come on, Yashim,” Preen said, nudging him with her elbow. “It’s only a snake. You look as though you’d seen a ghost.”