In this our ninth season, welcome to the latest episode of our current Tale for Our Time. If you hop over to our timely Tales home page, you'll find it displayed in Netflix tile style, with the stories organised by category - thrillers, fantasy, romance, etc - which we hope will make it easier for you to find your favorite serial. If it doesn't, please let us know. But you can now access seventy-nine of our cracking yarns here - and all previous episodes of our current adventure, The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer, here.
And with that welcome to Part Eleven of our tale. In tonight's installment, our protagonist's quiet nocturnal stroll is suddenly interrupted:
Just beyond a patch of light cast by a street lamp a scene was being enacted strange enough at any time and in any place, but doubly singular at that hour of the night, or early morning, in a lane off the Waterloo Road.
An old woman, from whose hand a basket of provisions had fallen, was struggling in the grasp of a tall Oriental! He was evidently trying to stifle her screams and at the same time to pinion her arms behind her!
I perceived that there was more in this scene than met the eye. Oriental footpads are rarities in the purlieus of Waterloo Road. So much was evident; and since I carried a short, sharp argument in my pocket, I hastened to advance it.
Oriental footpads are not such a rarity in today's United Kingdom. However, short sharp countervailing arguments in one's pocket are, after a century of ever more restrictive Firearms Acts, now extremely rare. Still, you'll be glad to hear that the long sharp argument is now more or less a standard accessory. See this chap prowling an Edinburgh nursery school earlier today:
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Eleven of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper simply by clicking here and logging-in.
Thank you for your kind comments about this latest Tale. Kelton, a Michigan Steyn Clubber, writes:
What I enjoy about this novel so far is that the author understands that the Muslims, while primitives, are sophisticated in their ways. I am reminded of the 'state-of-the-art primitives' line that is sometimes used here.
Yeah, that's an America Alone line, Kelton. Yet there is a wide range of Mohammedans out there - and a huge difference between, say, Iranians from the Seventies and the allegedly Somali chap above or the weekend's Senegalese killer in Texas. In the Emirates and other Gulf monarchies, they reckon that the west is winding up with the Islamodregs. Funny that.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club and enjoy our nightly audio adventures every evening twenty minutes before lowering your lamp - or hoard the episodes and binge-listen at the weekend or on a long car journey.
For more details on our Tales and other benefits to Steyn Club membership in this ninth year, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
