"In that case, we will look across the Caglioro as is our right, but we will ignore any and all spectacles. Fellow Bold Lions, do you hear this? Look out over the Caglioro to your heart's content, but if a spectacle interferes with your view, pay no heed. Neither enjoy it nor acknowledge its existence; otherwise we must listen to Fader's ratchety legalisms. Is that clear? Look, then, at will! But give no notice to any spectacle, should one chance to occur!"
Fader had nothing to say. Meanwhile, on a walkway high up under
the roof, a pair of old men shuffled out upon a circular platform te feet in diameter. They wore only loose trunks:
one white, the other| black. The old man in white showed disinclination, and peered with? raised eyebrows and a slack jaw down at the floor far below. He turned 3 and would have scuttled back to the walkway had not a gate barred! his exit. The old man in black hobbled forward and seized him;
the^ two wrestled, lurching this way and that, until the man in white tripped and tumbled headlong, whereupon his opponent fell upon him, dragged him clawing and scratching to the edge of the platform, and pushed him over the side.
Sprawling, toppling, the old man in white fell, to land upon a target studded with sharp staves, which pierced and broke his body. The Yips ranged around the floor of the Caglioro gave no more than a glance to the proceedings. Up on the high platform the old man in black trunks shuffled wearily away and was lost to view in the high shadows.
Kirdy turned and addressed the Bold Lions: "I saw nothing unusual, in the nature of a spectacle. Did anyone?"
"Not I."
"Not I."
"Not I."
"Nothing but ten thousand Yips engrossed in their machinations."
Uther Offaw turned to Fader: "I have just noticed a high platform up yonder. What is the reason for that, and I do not wish to pay an educational fee."
Fader allowed the shadow of an ironic smile to form on his face.
"That is used for certain spectacles which we present to tourists willing to pay. Indigent old persons approaching death, if they so choose, are allowed a luxury supplement to their rations. In return they must wrestle upon the platform, until one of them falls to his death. It is a procedure beneficial in every respect. Old persons enjoy a good diet in their nonproductive years and generate income by their passing, which otherwise would be wasted." , "Interesting! Men and women both enjoy the advantages of the scheme?"
"Naturally!"
"It seems a rather cynical exploitation of these old people," said Uther Offaw.
"By no means!" declared Fader.
"I am not encouraged to argue with you, but I will point out that because of strictures imposed upon us from without, we must use any and every means to survive."
"Hm. Might a spectacle be arranged with children as participants, rather than old men?"
"Quite possibly so. The tour clerk will be able to quote you the exact charges."
"It seems that almost anything can be arranged for a fee."
Fader held out his hands.
"Is this not true anywhere? I must announce that time is on the move. Have you seen enough of the Caglioro?"
Shugart looked around the group.
"We are ready to move on.
Where next?"
"We pass through the Gallery of Ancient Gladiators. Had you been attentive a few moments ago, you might have glimpsed a pair of these doughty warriors wrestling on the high platform. Since you failed to notice, I cannot charge a fee."
"Do we incur charges by traversing the gallery?"
Fader made a reassuring sign.
"It is on the way to the bazaar. Come."
Fader led the group into a long passage giving on a series of cubicles. In each an old man sat cross-legged on a dingy cushion. Some occupied themselves at a trifle of handicraft.
One embroidered; another tatted;
another wove strands of fiber into small toy animals. Others sat staring listlessly into space.
As the Bold Lions moved along the gallery they caught up with the party of tourists which had arranged the spectacle in the Caglioro. These numbered about twenty: Glawen adjudged them to be Lad- dakees from the world Gaude Phodelius IV, by reason of their squat physiques, fresh complexions, round faces and distinctive wide- brimmed hats with trailing black ribbons. The group leader seemed to be arranging another spectacle, the so-called Double Bubble, with the tour guide, but was deterred by what he considered excessive charges. Others of the party clustered around a cubicle, conversing with the old man inside. The Bold Lions stopped to listen.
A question had been put to the old man; he responded: "What choices are open to me? I can no longer work; should I sit in the dark and starve?"
"But you seem reconciled to this sort of death!"
"I care little, one way or another. It is a proper end to my life. I have achieved nothing, discovered nothing; I have brought not a twitch of change to the cosmos. I will soon be gone and no one will know the difference."
"It seems a negative philosophy," stated the Laddakee.
"Is there nothing you have done of which you are proud?"
"I have been a grass-scraper all my life. One stalk is much like the others. Still, long ago, an odd mood came on me and I carved a bit of wood into the similitude of a fish, with every scale in Correct detail. Folk who saw it thought it very fine."
