Just ahead of Episode Seventeen of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper, let me thank you for your many insightful comments on this latest Tale for Our Time. Listeners have been enjoying Sax Rohmer's Mohammedan caper of 1914, but more than a few are beginning to feel that some aspects of effective writing are falling by the wayside. Israel, a Steyn Clubber from Israel, says:
This must have been the fifth or sixth time that Cavanagh tells us that he cannot describe something.
Well, description is one of the absolutely hardest parts of writing, because you have to do it with an ease and compression that doesn't hold up the action. I was told that over forty years ago by David Cecil, the great literary scholar (and grandson of a prime minister, the third Marquess of Salisbury). I shall not attempt to describe Lord David, but he told me so at his delightful house at Cranborne. I shall make no effort to describe the house, but he gave me a jolly good tea. I suppose I could have a go at describing the tea, but I'm on a non-descriptive roll right now...
Other listeners are beginning to feel Mr Rohmer's cliffhanger endings are becoming somewhat predictible. Nicola, a member of The Mark Steyn Club from francophone eastern Ontario, writes:
That Hassan murderer and the violet eyed woman turn up all the time like bad pennies. This is like an Oriental Groundhog Day.
But Steve from Manhattan reckons the author may just be misdirecting in preparation for a stunning dénouement:
I now have a guess at the catch-the-readers-off-guard surprise ending. In the final chapter of The Quest, Hassan of Aleppo sets a devilishly clever trap for Cavanagh—and somehow Cavanagh doesn't fall into it!
I think that might be stretching plausibility too far, Steve. At any rate, tonight's episode begins in traditional fashion with Cavanagh yet again trussed up by his enemies:
My ankles were firmly lashed to the rails at the foot of my bed; each of my wrists was tied back to a bedpost. I ached in every limb and my head burned feverishly, which latter symptom I ascribed to the powerful drug which had been expelled into my face by the uncanny weapon carried by Hassan of Aleppo... A gag, of the type which Dumas has described in "Twenty Years After," the poire d'angoisse, was wedged firmly into my mouth, so that only by preserving the utmost composure could I breathe. I was bathed in cold perspiration. So I lay listening to the familiar sounds without and reflecting that it was quite possible so to lie, undisturbed, and to die alone, my presence there wholly unsuspected!
The poire d'Angoisse is a punning instrument of torture (see illustration). It means both a "pear of anguish" and a pear from Angoisse (in the Dordogne) which is particularly astringent and hard to swallow - a so-called "choke pear". However, Israel will note that, instead of merely declining to describe it, as is his wont, the author has referred us to an earlier author's prior description of it in another book entirely. So, if you'd like a description of the above-mentioned Lord David Cecil, there's one in the memoir by his great-niece-in-law (I think), the then Viscountess Cranborne.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Seventeen of The Murder on the Links simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Speaking of which, please allow us a quick plug for the Tales for Our Time home page in its handy Netflix-style tile format. It's super-easy to pick out whatever tickles your fancy of an evening, and Timely-Talers from around the world seem to like it. If you've yet to hear any of our Tales, you can enjoy the first eight-and-a-half years' worth of audio adventures - by Conan Doyle, Kafka, Conrad, Gogol, Wodehouse, Baroness Orczy, Jack London, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson and more - by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking the perfect present for a fellow fan of classic fiction, don't forget our Steyn Club Gift Membership. Alternatively, if you'd like a book in old-fashioned book form, over at the SteynOnline bookstore there are bargains galore among our Steynamite Special offers.
Please join me tomorrow for Part Eighteen of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper.
