Programming note: Tomorrow, Saturday, I'll be here with the latest episode of my Serenade Radio weekend music show, On the Town. It starts at 5pm GMT - which is 6pm in Western Europe and 12 noon North American Eastern. You can listen from almost anywhere on the planet by clicking the button at top right here.
~Welcome to Part Eight of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer. Steve, a First Month Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, is waiting for Scotland Yard to up their game:
I continue to be unimpressed with this tactic of defending the slipper in a ground floor room in the dark while leaving the window wide open. Having a lone night watchman out by the gate also seems dubious.
But the museum room where the slipper is now being kept is, I'm sure, going to be much better. True, there are multiple windows in this new premises. But they will be closed. Closed tight.
We shall see, Steve. In tonight's episode, the usual suspects are already beginning to gather:
Two men, both tall, stood in the shadow of a doorway on the Opposite side of the street, staring intently up at the Museum windows. It was a tropically hot afternoon and they stood in deepest shadow gazing upward intently and gave me not even a passing glance.
But I knew one for the Oriental visitor of the morning, and despite broad noonday and the hum of busy London about me, my blood seemed to turn to water. I stood rooted to the spot, held there by a most surprising horror.
For the gray-bearded figure of the other watcher was one I could never forget; its benignity was associated with the most horrible hours of my life, with deeds so dreadful that recollection to this day sometimes breaks my sleep, arousing me in the still watches, bathed in a cold sweat of fear.
It was Hassan of Aleppo!
To enjoy Part Eight of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, members of The Mark Steyn Club should simply click here and log-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For more details, see here. And please join me on Saturday for Part Nine of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper.
