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The areas screened by the walls on either side afforded wings where equipment could be kept out of sight until needed, or other preparations effected that might be required during an act. Black drapes at the rear curtained off a narrow space running the full width of the wall, while a door from the wing to stage left gave access to a corridor connecting serving rooms on one side of the banqueting hall to the kitchens and cellars.
    Korshak stood facing the assembly, clad in a blue tunic and loose white trousers, his dark, curly hair flowing down over the collar of a scarlet cloak emblazoned with gold stars and moons that projected the appropriate mood and image; it also provided concealment for many objects and handy pouches. His hands grasped the two brightly patterned cylinders standing on end a short distance apart on the table in front of him. The routine was going well, with the onlookers into the spirit of things and eager for more. He raised the cylinders from the table to reveal a bottle that had been covered by one, and under the other, a glass. The bottle and glass were identical in appearance to the ones that had occupied opposite positions when he covered them a moment ago, giving the effect of their having changed places. Cries of astonishment, laughter, and applause greeted the feat. Korshak lowered the cylinders back onto the table, then raised them again to show the objects returned to their original sides.
    The trick was common among street performers, and the company was virtually certain to include some who knew, or would guess, that the normal technique used bottomless bottles which the performer could lower over either glass at will by applying pressure through thumb holes in the cylinders, or by making the cylinders flexible enough for the bottles to be gripped through them. The liquid that Korshak had poured from one of the bottles at the start had been held in a compartment contained in the upper part.
    But Korshak’s system was not of the kind used by street entertainers. It was a variant of his own invention, bearing his signature on a side of the table, that made use of hidden recesses below the tabletop where items could be received from above or from which they could be delivered back again, according to the manipulations of spring catches operated by levers from behind. Thus, instead of raising a bottle along with its cylinder to uncover the glass that had been hidden under it – which was the normal way – with Korshak’s system the bottle was carried down below the tabletop, and the opening filled by a disk of matching material previously held in the cylinder space above the bottle, on top of which rested another glass. This left the cylinder empty.
    Korshak lifted the cylinders to show bottle and glass having apparently changed places again. He gazed slowly around the attentive faces, waiting for the knowing nods being exchanged here and there to subside, and let his smile broaden in a way that seemed to say, Yes, I know what some of you are thinking. Then he leveled the cylinder that he was holding above the glass – the one that by the usual method should be concealing a bottle – and swept it around to one side, then the other, letting everyone see that it was empty. Exclamations of surprise greeted the revelation. Without losing momentum, Korshak lowered the cylinders and moved the lever back to restore the bottle; at the same time, he caused the bottle and glass on the other side to be taken up into their cylinder together and replaced by a new item consigned from below the tabletop. When he raised the cylinders again, the bottle was apparently back where it had been, but the glass on the other side had become a bowl of swimming fish.
    As a new wave of applause filled the room, he picked up the bowl in both hands and came around the table, while behind him Ronti, who had been standing back just outside the left wing, moved in to wheel the table away. The bowl was divided by a vertical