Journeys Beyond Advice by Rhys Hughes

Author:Rhys Hughes [Hughes, Rhys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gloomy Seahorse Press
Published: 2014-04-21T22:00:00+00:00

The weeks passed in a flurry of work. I arranged to insure the lives of a hundred slaves with a dubious city bank. There are many such institutions in Bristol. I wondered why Clovis had specified that number, and where he would obtain the victims, but I trusted his aptitude, and in fact insured a quantity slightly greater than this. The profits would be shared equally. We kept in fitful contact with each other. He had borrowed a large stock of lingerie from one of his cousins in the fashion trade and had ordered it delivered to a rather unusual place. This is what I meant when I referred earlier to vested interests. True, in the Americas, a vest is a waistcoat rather than an undergarment, but for us it represents the first layer of linen sheathing a body. Knickers, basques, stockings, brassieres, likewise. I also kept in touch with Captain Babel. He was hungry but excited.

At last I received a letter from Clovis informing me that the ship was ready. Stoss had completed it just one day behind schedule. I left my office with a light step, taking only the goldfish bowl that stood on my desk. Humbaba was supposed to meet me with the limousine, but he didn’t appear. I waited for an hour and then caught a tram to the cottage of my associate. Clovis was pacing his lawn in fury. The Renault was parked in the driveway, unwashed and unserviced. His chauffeur had absconded in the middle of the night. He had gone to bed as usual, in his little room under the stairs, but when Clovis went down to rouse him at dawn, he found only an unmade bed. A suitcase was also missing from the storeroom. It was plain that Humbaba had betrayed both of us, but for what reason neither of us could hazard a guess.

“If I catch him, I’ll brand him with every letter of the Greek alphabet!”

“Make it Chinese pictograms,” I countered. “They are more plentiful.”

Clovis ground his teeth. “What pains me the most is that this was no moment of madness. He has been deceiving me for some time. I checked the odometer on the dashboard of the Renault and it displayed more miles than I budgeted for. He has made a secret diversion.”

“Then I shall have to drive us to the ship...”

I didn’t relish the prospect. The bulky limousine was difficult to handle. Nonetheless, I accepted my new duty with grace and conveyed Clovis out of the city to the estuary, sustaining no more damage than a cracked headlamp where I collided with a bicycle on a blind bend. We left the velocipedist in a ditch and continued, still more recklessly; I had no wish to appear responsible in the presence of a Carnacki, in case he judged it a weakness and used it as an excuse to redefine our relationship, lowering my status from partner to stooge.

The woodyard gate was open. The sentry warmed his hands on a coal brazier and nodded us through.

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