Shows and movies and suchlike may still be constrained by the Covid commissar, but here at SteynOnline, through lockdowns and looting and whatever's next, the lights stay on. We're very proud that this website now offers more free content than at any time in our eighteen-year history. But we also provide some premium extras especially for our Mark Steyn Club members, such as these nightly adaptations of classic fiction. So here we go with the Tuesday installment of our current Tale for Our Time - Jack London's biggest selling book in his lifetime, Burning Daylight.
Sunday's farewell to the Klondike prompted this from Terry Sautter, a South Carolina member of The Mark Steyn Club:
That majestic closing theme was never more appropriate than tonight's episode with Daylight waving his cap good-bye to the North. Another tremendous tale read expertly. This is the only club for me.
Thank you, Terry. Glad you feel that way - and hope this next section of our tale appeals as much.
In tonight's episode, Daylight has barely swapped the Yukon for the Golden Gate when he is summoned east - to the glittering citadel of New York:
It was not long afterward that Daylight came on to New York. A letter from John Dowsett had been the cause—a simple little typewritten letter of several lines. But Daylight had thrilled as he read it. He remembered the thrill that was his, a callow youth of fifteen, when, in Tempas Butte, through lack of a fourth man, Tom Galsworthy, the gambler, had said, "Get in, Kid; take a hand." That thrill was his now. The bald, typewritten sentences seemed gorged with mystery. "Our Mr. Howison will call upon you at your hotel. He is to be trusted. We must not be seen together. You will understand after we have had our talk." Daylight conned the words over and over. That was it. The big game had arrived, and it looked as if he were being invited to sit in and take a hand. Surely, for no other reason would one man so peremptorily invite another man to make a journey across the continent.
They met—thanks to "our" Mr. Howison,—up the Hudson, in a magnificent country home. Daylight, according to instructions, arrived in a private motor-car which had been furnished him. Whose car it was he did not know any more than did he know the owner of the house, with its generous, rolling, tree-studded lawns...
How terribly civilized compared to the Yukon. Or so it appears...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Seventeen of Burning Daylight simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you enjoy me in audio, you might like to know that we complement Tales for Our Time at the other end of the day with an audio edition of The Mark Steyn Show. The latest episode airs tomorrow, Wednesday, and is another of our combined Steyn Show/Clubland Q&A specials in which I answer questions from Steyn Clubbers. It airs live around the planet at 1pm North American Eastern - that's 5pm GMT/6pm British Summer Time. Hope you'll tune in.
Membership in The Mark Steyn Club is not for everyone, but, if you've a pal who enjoys classic fiction, we'd love to welcome him or her to our ranks via the birthday present that lasts all year: A gift membership in the Steyn Club, which comes with access to our entire archive of Tales for Our Time, including The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Time Machine, The Thirty-Nine Steps and many more. For more details on our special Gift Membership, see here. Please join me tomorrow evening for Part Eighteen of Burning Daylight.