Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin by P G Wodehouse

Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin by P G Wodehouse

Author:P G Wodehouse [Wodehouse, P G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-09-24T16:00:00+00:00


2

It was no idle boast that Mr. Llewellyn had made when he had spoken of his skill at irising out through kitchens. He was on the further side of the door to which he had directed Monty's attention while the Voice was uttering the second syllable of the word 'everybody'. A man of his wide experience needed no more than the 'ev' to set him in motion. Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze, he flew through the air with the greatest of ease. Monty and Sandy followed close behind him.

It was plainly the kitchen into which they had penetrated, a long room full of smells and noises and men in white caps. These last paid little attention to their visitors beyond a cursory glance. Most of them had served under Otto Flannery's banner when The Happy Prawn had been The Giddy Goat and before that The Oo-La-La, and police raids were no novelty to them. One white-capped man said to Monty as he whizzed by 'Cops, Mac?', and when Monty replied in the affirmative wagged his head and said 'Well, that's how it goes', but apart from that the interest of the Kitchen Staff in the proceedings was tepid.

The yard and the dustbins were there, just as Mr. Llewellyn had predicted. Monty seated himself on the nearest bin and drew a deep breath. After the stuffiness of The Happy Prawn the air seemed to him to rival the ozone advertised by Frinton, Skegness and other seashore resorts. He would have been willing to sit breathing it into his lungs indefinitely, but Mr. Llewellyn, the man of action, would not permit this.

'Don't sit there puffing like a stranded porpoise, Bodkin,' he said severely. 'We've got to get out of here before they start searching the joint. Gimme a leg-up over that wall.'

Monty gave him the leg-up, and paused for a space on top of the wall like Humpty Dumpty. In spite of his demand for haste he could not refrain from speaking a few words on the subject of Otto Flannery.

‘I cannot understand it.’ he said. 'I simply cannot understand it. Otto, when I knew him, was as shrewd a man as you could shake a stick at in a month of Sundays, and yet he omits to take the elementary precaution of sweetening the police. I can only suppose it to have been Gloria's doing. She always had a parsimonious streak in her. I can hear her saying "Why waste the money, Otto? You're having enough expense with this old night club as it is without bumping up the bank-rolls of a bunch of cops who've probably got large fortunes stashed away already. The odds are all against them busting in, so take a chance". And Otto foolishly let himself be persuaded. Gloria was like that with me when we were married. Grudged every dollar I spent on squaring the guys who had to be squared. I remember one time . . .’

At this point Mr. Llewellyn



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