Read The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes for Free Online

something stirred in my memory. Men like these and piles of black stones somehow went together, as if belonging! No, what was that memory?
     
                  " 'Not much to see, I'm afraid, Ffellowes. I'm still trying to clear a lower passage. There have been a number of rock falls. It's a bad place and only for experts. Can't ask you down, I fear, since the risk is mine should you happen to be hurt . '
     
                  Under this show of concern lay an almost open sneer. I was not to be allowed down, whatever the pretext, that was plain.
     
                  " 'Shouldn't dream of troubling you,' I answered, keeping my face as blank as I could. 'I'm sure you and these chaps of yours know how to work in safety. Never cared for scrambling about in holes, myself.' I dared not be too much the silly ass, but I could hint at it 'What was that jabber you were giving them? Some Wog or Gyppo language?'
     
                  "His dark eyes narrowed as he studied me. I hoped I had not overdone the Pukka Sahib image. The wind soughed and wailed around us as he answered slowly.
     
                  " 'Yes, it's an Arab dialect . My helpers were trained in the field by my own methods, in the Near East . This way they don't gossip. I don't like gossip, Ffellowes, or prying either.' He took a step closer to me. 'Now, M y dear captain, I have work to do. I suggest you finish your Cook's tour elsewhere. Perhaps,' he added, 'you can go back and hold my brother's hand. He seems to need it, now that he's taken to believing in bogey men.' The malice was naked and so was something else. James had told me that his brother held him in contempt . But this was not contempt that I saw, but pure hatred, a very different thing.
     
                  " 'I say, that's a bit raw,' I mumbled. 'Still, if you have things to do, I'll push on.' What I should have liked to do was push in his nasty face, or have a good stab at it . I had determined not to lose my control, and I turned away still mumbling inaudibly.
     
                  "I thought that was to be the end of the encounter, but I was wrong. I had underestimated the depths of Lord Lionel's anger. His temper, always evil under the surface, now flared up. I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder, and I was spun around to find him glaring at me from a foot away, his face bone-white with passion.
     
                  " 'You can tell my brother to stay out of my hair!' he hissed at me, his voice actually shaking. 'Tell him to stay away from here and keep his damned house pets out of my business, too, or, by heaven, I'll give him something to really moan about! Now, get out!'
     
                  "This was too much, even for my role of chartered idiot I chopped his hand aside with the edge of mine, a blow that really hurt, and had the satisfaction of seeing him wince. 'I think, sir,' I said coldly, 'that you have been in too many primitive places recently. You forget yourself. This is England, you know.'
     
                  "I meant to infuriate him further, in the hope of learning more, but I was only partly successful. His face contorted in fresh rage, but suddenly changed. Over it instead, stole a most malignant and evil smile.
     
                  " 'Yes,' he said in quiet tones. 'Now how could I have forgot that? We are in Merry Old England.' And he began to laugh! Still chuckling, he stalked over to the gap in his ruin and lowered himself down, without giving me the benefit of another glance.
     
                  "I walked back toward the house over the main track, having no reason to conceal myself any longer. As I walked I tried to puzzle out all the mixed and convoluted things and impressions that swam about my mind. One of them was the realization that whatever tongue his lordship had used to his men, it was nothing out of the Near East . I knew something of those