CHAPTER 21
Benitoe wasn’t sure he was ready for more surprises—it had already been a very long day—but he followed after George obediently, and noticed a current in the crowd bringing others in the same direction.
They entered a large open grassy space, and he tilted his head as he sought to make sense of the activity there. Three groups of people were standing about around big square wicker baskets almost as tall as he was. Ropes of some kind stretched from the baskets to great lengths of colored fabric laid out along the ground.
George lost no time hastening him along to the furthest of these, strolling ahead of the crowd. “Two tickets,” he cried, and a fellow with a cap and a uniform of some kind came up to take his money.
“You’ll go up in the first round, as soon as we get a few mo
