The Winged Bull by Dion Fortune

Author:Dion Fortune
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: (v1.0), Fantasy, Occult
Publisher: Wyndham Publications Ltd.
Published: 1976-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Brangwyn and Murchison ate their breakfast next morning to a running accompaniment of loud grumblings at the cold, guaranteed to be clearly audible through whatever spy-hole the faithless Monks had established. When Murchison departed for his constitutional he left Brangwyn safely guarded by the presence of two active young Italians. Murchison felt eyes following him from behind the book-shop windows, and was pretty sure that the telephone was being dialled before he turned the corner.

He took a bus to Regent’s Park and started to circumambulate the Outer Circle at a good round pace. He had gone, perhaps, a quarter way round, when he heard himself accosted, and, turning sharply, found himself face to face with Astley, who was smiling affably and apparently bore no ill-will for his recent rough handling. So it was he himself who was the quarry, not Brangwyn in an empty flat?

‘I hope you will allow me to explain and apologize, Mr Murchison?’

‘I think the apologies are due from me,’ said Murchison. ‘I had my instructions, however, and I had to abide by ‘em. And I think you’ll admit I gave you fair warning.’

‘Couldn’t have been fairer,’ said Astley. ‘Shall we have a drink on it and call it all square?’

‘If you like,’ said Murchison. ‘Where shall we go?’ He wondered whether he was being decoyed away somewhere as a preliminary to kidnapping.

‘There’s a little pub just outside the next gate. I dare say we might not appreciate its clientele when business is in full swing, but it will be quiet enough at this time of the morning.’

Murchison set a brisk pace, for he wanted to find out in what sort of physical condition his companion was, in case it came to a scrap, and had the satisfaction of hearing him begin to wheeze by the second lamp-post.

The pub was soon reached, and proved to be a humble little place. The upholstered divinity behind the beer-engines demanded their pleasure with a more than professional smile, for they were not her usual type of customer. Murchison chose a light lager, for he wished to have his wits about him, but Astley had a double whisky.

They took their drinks to a little marble-topped table set in the corner angle of a red plush settee that ran round two sides of the room, and settled down for what Astley evidently intended to be a careful bit of diplomacy. He opened the ball by comparing English pubs with Parisian cafés. Murchison grunted. He went on to compare them with Spanish ventas. Murchison grunted again. From Spain it was only a step to South America and voodoo, and from thence to Thibet and the Lamas.

‘Queer old bird, your reverend employer,’ said Astley reminiscently. ‘Did he ever tell you how he met me in the middle of a glacier on the road to Lhassa?’

Murchison’s grunt indicated a negative, and he lent a bored ear to a long account of the encounter. He was beginning to wonder whether he had been mistaken in

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.