Welcome to our regularly scheduled audio Ovaltine twenty minutes before you lower your lamp: it's Episode Sixteen of our summer thriller by Sapper, Bulldog Drummond. In tonight's episode, our hero begins to get some sense of what's he up against:
Hugh had no intention of watching any man tortured. At the same time something of the nature of the diabolical plot conceived by Peterson was beginning to take a definite shape in his mind, though many of the most important links were still missing. And with this knowledge had come the realisation that he was no longer a free agent. The thing had ceased to be a mere sporting gamble with himself and a few other chosen spirits matched against a gang of criminals; it had become—if his surmise was correct—a national affair. England herself—her very existence—was threatened by one of the vilest plots ever dreamed of in the brain of man.
If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club you can hear Part Sixteen of our serialisation of Bulldog Drummond simply by clicking here and logging-in. All previous episodes can be found here.
Gareth Wigmore, a Steyn Clubber from the English Midlands, is not like Kathlyn Miller, our Texan member from yesterday. Mr Wigmore has no time for our nightly cliffhangers:
Like most of the modern generation, my delayed gratification genes are entirely absent. Waiting calmly for the next episode is not for me. In fact it enrages me. I bought my own copy and finished it (I did the same for Secret Adversary) in a day. The next day I read #2 The Black Gang.
Come on Mark ! You are letting your addictive members with no self control down.
Oh, my. Are you past Some Girls Do? Has he died of old age yet?
Membership in The Mark Steyn Club is not for everyone, but, if you've a pal who enjoys classic fiction at a sedater pace than Gareth, we'd love to welcome him or her to our ranks via the present that lasts all year: A gift membership in the Steyn Club, which brings with it access to our full archive of Tales for Our Time - Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Time Machine, The Thirty-Nine Steps and dozens more.
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To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and do join me tomorrow for Part Seventeen of Bulldog Drummond.