Book Club

Throckmorton strolled into the Horatio Club on the Mall that Thursday evening. Dinner was always a formal affair, so he was dressed up to the nines like all the other members. Being a guest evening, there were even ladies in the club. He greeted some of his fellow members as he wandered through, idly wondering what they had been up to recently, but he did not engage in conversation at this point. His goal was to find Bunny. This did not take him long. Bunny was loudly expounding about his latest book, a non-travel piece for a change. Apparently he was moving into the literature market, or rather opening a branch of his business that would focus on murder-mysteries. From what Throckmorton heard, he did not think that he would like Mrs Christie's novels. He had more than enough murder and intrigue in his life as it was. Throckmorton pushed his way through the throng to Bunny's side.

"Evening, Bunny."

Bunny broke off from his discourse and indicated a slightly wild-looking man in an ill-fitting evening suit.

“Gladiolus, might I introduce you to Mr Eugene Hunter, the eminent author of Down the Nyle, and other books of similar ilk? I thought the pair of you might have something to talk about, since you are both explorers. Mr Hunter, this is my good friend, Throckmorton Gladiolus, an explorer of some renown, although I have never yet successfully prevailed upon him to actually write any of his exploits down. Perhaps you could give him some pointers.”

The man, to whom Throckmorton was introduced, grunted his acknowledgement of the introduction. He was clearly ill-at-ease in a formal context and Throckmorton’s attempts to spark a conversation were answered with almost monosyllabic curtness. Nevertheless, he was not going to be beaten by a little social ineptness, so he persevered and eventually found a crack in the man’s reserve. As preparation for the meeting, Throckmorton had read Down the Nyle and a couple of the man’s other books. He broached the subject of an interesting incident in the book involving a native chieftain and a pair of ladies silk unmentionables and Hunter almost cracked a smile. Soon Throckmorton had him talking in more detail about the tribes of the lower Nyle and beyond. Hunter clearly believed that an ancient civilisation survived in that area. His sources suggested that the local natives lived in fear of these people and that they paid them tribute of some kind. It was also rumoured that they had powers beyond the ken of ordinary men and that they might well possess a great treasure like the one that Wiggy had written about. Perhaps there really was something in this story of Wiggy's after all. Throckmorton was intrigued. It was clear that the man had an overactive imagination, I mean, fancy thinking that the pyramids were built by Martians, when it was obvious that the work of thousands of slaves had gone into them! However, it was also clear that he had travelled extensively and his knowledge, once wheat were sifted from chaff, could prove really useful.

Find a person DF 3 (Succeeded easily)
Get the Clue DF 4 (Succeeded but only with difficulty)
4 Clues