FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  
I feel like a fighting cock." My brain ceased to reel. I saw all. "Have you been having a drink?" "I have. As you advised. Unpleasant stuff. Like medicine. Burns your throat, too, and makes one as thirsty as the dickens. How anyone can mop it up, as you do, for pleasure, beats me. Still, I would be the last to deny that it tunes up the system. I could bite a tiger." "What did you have?" "Whisky. At least, that was the label on the decanter, and I have no reason to suppose that a woman like your aunt--staunch, true-blue, British--would deliberately deceive the public. If she labels her decanters Whisky, then I consider that we know where we are." "A whisky and soda, eh? You couldn't have done better." "Soda?" said Gussie thoughtfully. "I knew there was something I had forgotten." "Didn't you put any soda in it?" "It never occurred to me. I just nipped into the dining-room and drank out of the decanter." "How much?" "Oh, about ten swallows. Twelve, maybe. Or fourteen. Say sixteen medium-sized gulps. Gosh, I'm thirsty." He moved over to the wash-stand and drank deeply out of the water bottle. I cast a covert glance at Uncle Tom's photograph behind his back. For the first time since it had come into my life, I was glad that it was so large. It hid its secret well. If Gussie had caught sight of that jug of orange juice, he would unquestionably have been on to it like a knife. "Well, I'm glad you're feeling braced," I said. He moved buoyantly from the wash-hand stand, and endeavoured to slosh me on the back again. Foiled by my nimble footwork, he staggered to the bed and sat down upon it. "Braced? Did I say I could bite a tiger?" "You did." "Make it two tigers. I could chew holes in a steel door. What an ass you must have thought me out there in the garden. I see now you were laughing in your sleeve." "No, no." "Yes," insisted Gussie. "That very sleeve," he said, pointing. "And I don't blame you. I can't imagine why I made all that fuss about a potty job like distributing prizes at a rotten little country grammar school. Can you imagine, Bertie?" "Exactly. Nor can I imagine. There's simply nothing to it. I just shin up on the platform, drop a few gracious words, hand the little blighters their prizes, and hop down again, admired by all. Not a suggestion of split trousers from start to finish. I mean, why should anybody split his trousers? I can't imagine. Can you imagine?" "No
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
imagine
 

Gussie

 

decanter

 

sleeve

 

Whisky

 
prizes
 
thirsty
 

trousers

 
blighters
 

endeavoured


feeling

 

braced

 
buoyantly
 

gracious

 
nimble
 

Foiled

 
platform
 
unquestionably
 

secret

 

caught


admired

 

finish

 

simply

 

suggestion

 

orange

 

rotten

 

insisted

 

laughing

 

thought

 

garden


distributing

 
pointing
 

Exactly

 

Bertie

 

Braced

 
staggered
 

country

 
grammar
 

tigers

 
school

footwork
 

system

 
pleasure
 
reason
 

suppose

 

deceive

 
deliberately
 

public

 
labels
 

British