to play the king then?’ he enquired.
‘I was coming to that,’ Smew replied. ‘There’s a famous scene in the play involving a banquet, so I suggest that since we’re all sitting around this table we should give it a try, each of us taking turns to be different characters.’
During the ongoing discussions I’d been expecting an outburst from Garganey at any moment. After all, Smew had seized the helm again, just like on the previous Monday. I could tell from Garganey’s face that he had little enthusiasm for joining in with Smew’s project, but to my surprise he didn’t offer a word of objection. He merely sat at the table studying his copy of the book.
‘The scene in question is on page forty-three,’ said Smew. ‘Now all you need to know for the time being is that the king is the only person at the banquet who cannot see the ghost. Perhaps we could start by reading it silently to ourselves.’
We all obeyed.
Whimbrel, I soon discovered, had the habit of running his index finger along each line of print, word by word, as he read. Presumably he thought that I would read at precisely the same pace as him while we were sharing, whereas in truth I went fairly quickly and had to keep waiting until he moved his finger out of the way. Still, we managed somehow, reaching the end of the scene after only a few minutes. The first to finish, though, was Dotterel.
‘This ghost,’ he said. ‘Who is he, exactly?’
‘He’s a former friend of the king,’ answered Smew.
‘But he can’t see him?’
‘No.’
‘Right.’ Dotterel turned back to page forty-three and commenced reading the scene again.
In the meantime, Smew addressed the rest of us. ‘You’ll notice that one of the characters is a lady,’ he said. ‘To save unnecessary embarrassment I’ll take her part for now. Unless someone else wishes to volunteer, of course?’
Nobody did.
‘I’ll be the ghost,’ said Whimbrel.
‘I’ll be the king,’ said Garganey, ‘if nobody minds.’
‘And I’ll be the murderer,’ said Sanderling.
‘All right,’ said Smew. ‘Everyone else will be the noble guests. Now to begin with the king has to “mingle with society and play the humble host”, which means basically that he has to walk around the table greeting everybody. So, when you’re ready, Garganey.’
‘Just a second,’ Dotterel interjected. ‘Shouldn’t we move the emperor’s chair out of the way?’
‘Why’s that?’ asked Smew.
‘Well, the king says “the table’s full”.’
‘So?’
‘It can’t really be full when there’s an empty chair, can it?’
‘It won’t be empty for very long,’ said Smew, ‘because the ghost comes and sits in it.’
‘But you just said the king couldn’t see the ghost.’
‘Correct.’
‘So it’ll still look empty to the king.’
‘And whilst I’m walking around the table,’ added Garganey, ‘my chair’s going to be empty too.’
‘That’s two empty chairs,’ said Whimbrel.
‘All right!’ snapped Smew, closing his book and laying it on the table. ‘You’ve all made it quite clear you’re not interested in doing this play, so we won’t bother!’
‘On the contrary,’ said Dotterel. ‘I think it seems very profound on first reading. I’m definitely for carrying on.’
‘Same here,’ said Brambling.
‘Why don’t we simply pretend that the emperor’s chair isn’t there?’ I suggested. ‘After all, we’re hardly entitled to move it out of the way.’
One or two people murmured their assent.
‘Sounds like a reasonable compromise,’ said Smew. ‘Everyone agreed?’
‘Agreed,’ said Wryneck.
The clock struck eleven.
‘Is that the time already?’ said Sanderling.
No one answered.
‘Maybe we should leave it until another day,’ I said. ‘Then we can all read the play at our leisure and come back next week fully prepared.’
‘Good idea,’ said Brambling.
‘Well, I suppose there’s no particular hurry,’ observed Smew, ‘just so long as everybody does their homework properly.’
‘We’ll do our best,’ said Garganey. ‘I presume I’ll be king again next time?’
‘If you like,’ said Smew.
For an instant I thought I saw the pair of them glance warily at one another across the table; but then I decided it was probably only my imagination. Nonetheless an awkward silence ensued, during which the rest of us began rising to our feet. Sanderling went over to the clock and stood gazing through the glass at its inner workings. He seemed slightly startled when all of a sudden the minute hand ticked forward by one degree.
‘Can we take these books with us?’ asked Whimbrel.
‘I’m afraid not,’ said Smew. ‘You’ll have to come to the great library and read them there.’
‘But I thought libraries were for borrowing books.’
‘It’s not a public lending library,’ Smew replied. ‘It’s the imperial library of the