Chapter 3 Summary

The players walk alongside the cart while they travel, and Martin Bell uses this time to train Nicolas in acting. He begins by teaching him thirty hand gestures that he feels are essential to every actor. As a teacher, Bell is restless and stingy with compliments. He informs Nicolas that the most important skills for an actor are quick wit, easy movement, and a ready tongue for improvisation. Because Martin's father was an actor, Martin was raised as one too, and this helps explain his passionate and dramatic nature. Nicolas learns that he will play the part of the devil's fool, Brendan's former role. However, this role involves juggling, which Nicolas has a more difficult time learning.

Nicolas discovers that each member in the group can help him in some way. Straw, for example, is a gifted mime. Of the entire group, he...