— Broos calls tell him to call Frank Black settled it with him last night get my arm here Beaton…
— Yes sir…
— Reminds me Stamper’s heart tissue damage doctors tell him some damn government study shows maybe caused by cobalt brewers been using to get a head on beer, great damn beer drinker Stamper want you to get onto that little Jew down in the FDA find out what damn it let go of me…
— Yes sir but, excuse me but wouldn’t it serve Mister Stamper better to go directly to the National Institutes of Health for the…
— Not Stamper’s damn heart Beaton point’s where the damn cobalt’s coming from use it as an additive or find it in the water, find some damn brewery using water where it occurs could mean a deposit around somewhere last thing we need right now some damn fool coming up with that. Call Crawley about this Diamond tender tell him Stamper’s trying to reach him about some damn fool movie they’re making, sent Monty a memo on it says they want to shoot hippies in the National Parks probably even the damn Interior Department can’t issue permits for that.
— Yes sir I saw a copy of the memo and I believe that was a typographical error sir, I saw the film and their intention appears to be to shoot hippos…
— Just tell him call Stamper back in his car, riding around down there burning down all his guest houses been trying to reach Crawley all morning.
— Yes sir in fact I called Mister Crawley myself earlier but was told he was in his bath…
— What the devil you call him at home for.
— No sir this was his office he…
— Beaton you call Crawley tell him what I told you to about Nobili and this damn Endo divestiture tell him we’re holding up this Diamond Cable tender and this time call him at his office and don’t tell me he’s in his damn bath hear me? While you’re at it call Ude’s office find out where this damn law stands gives eighteen-year-olds majority rights, safe enough in that Greek jail but as long as this tender’s held up I want to be damn sure where her shares stand in case, what…
— No excuse me sir just that large folder there I, I thought you must have seen these pictures of her release in the papers sir…
— Release by God thought these Greeks gave a damn stiff sentence for drugs.
— Give me that Beaton.
— Yes ma’am it’s quite heavy yes sir that was Nepal sir, this time she was charged with transporting incendiary bombs across the border and when our embassy there called Mister Moncrieff to intervene he…
— Monty? Comes in throwing bombs you tell me Monty fixed it like a traffic ticket by God Beaton…
— No no sir not directly she, the objects she was carrying proved to be ah, items of feminine hygiene whose nature and use the Greek customs examiner was unfamiliar with in his ah, in his limited experience sir, they apparently resembled incendiary cylinders fitted with fuses and…
— Perfect pigs look at them, surfacing from a fun stay in the Greek islands with her constant companion on the BP circuit these days, tawny sitar-playing…
— Don’t have any damn shirt on, who’s the nigger with her.
— I understand he’s a young musician from India sir, he…
— The same one she’s stretched out here naked with, how do you like his…
— By God Beaton told you to keep a file on Boody don’t mean you have to buy every smut sheet in town.
— No sir this appeared in a leading fashion magazine sir she, here I’m sorry ma’am I’ll pick them up let me get the door sir…
— Anything new on Freddie, Beaton?
— No sir he was out again late last week and apparently eluded his attendants for most of a day but…
— Devil’s this back here looks like a bus sign.
— A New York City bus sign yes sir, since its meaning is clearly unintelligible I expect to use it in court to support Deleserea’s contention that rather than soliciting she was merely asking passersby for dir…
— I want her back by lunchtime Beaton and I want that carload of nig…
— Whole damn board waiting Zona probably all asleep in there, Beaton get on those phone calls hear me? While you’re at it get that damn fool running that bank out there Whitefoot something like that Bulcke’s got the number just see if he sounds ready to talk business once we get this little wop straightened out.
— Yes sir… and for a moment he appeared to cling to the doorknob for balance once he got it closed behind them before his own black shoes parted to tread by turn a breast, a face, Heiress in Bomb Plot, Andros viewed over tawny buttocks across the carpet to the desk where they drew close again and his hands briefly cradled his face before one dropped to the telephone. — Miss Bulcke I want you to place a call to Mister Crawley and another one to a bank executive with a name like Whitelaw the Governor says you have his number, out on Long… yes and Miss Bulcke I want you to try to reach Mrs Joubert it’s quite urgent, I suppose the school where she’s teaching would be the… yes and if I’m on another line when you reach her simply cut in and… yes simply say you have a call for me from Senator Broos… and his face was gone in his hands again until a button glowed. — Yes hello…?
— Hello, hello…
— Paint dropping off the ceiling into my soup and I’m litigating with the landlord, I’ve brought suits against two publishers and Tuesday I have to go into small claims court for…
— Excuse me I have your call from Senator…
— Hello…? Shirley what in the hell is… no I know it’s a crossed line nobody I know’d be in small claims court, if Stamper’s trying to get through stay on it and then come in here and fix these electrodes, just hang this up for me there will you Bast? Six thousand shares of phone company stock and I can’t reach Billy be damned, well. Brought our magnum opus in, have you? no just put the whole case here in front of me, have to keep my feet in this damn tub, it… hand me that letter opener.
— Yes here the, that catch sticks sometimes but…
— There… wait, probably want to save this piece won’t you, might want to get it repaired. Now, let’s have a look… and he held the page from the top at arm’s length.
— Oh yes well no that’s just…
— See how those beggars got off with a billion dollars? Next thing we’ll be handing money out to the reindeer up there, sorry…
— No I’ll get it, it’s just something I…
— Might just roll up that right trouserleg while you’re down there, don’t want it copper plated eh? Now, yes this is more like it yes, this the opening bars is it?
— Oh that’s I forgot I’d, that’s an accordion solo I…
— Accordion eh? Sounds interesting Bast but I think we’ll want something a little more impressive to open up, looks like a footprint on it too…
— Yes the accordionist did that, I just went down there to get paid and he said the dancers were the ones who’d hired me and since they’d both just been fired nobody was responsible for…
— Yes come in Shirley tighten up these electrodes will you? Slipping like that no current coming through at all, now what was that Bast?
— Nothing just the first violin was the only nice person there, he said he’d call up somebody he knows at ASCAP and I might get a job listening for their songs on the…
— Little tighter there Shirley, ever pick up jungle rot Bast still the best treatment for it there is, did all this by hand did you?
— Well yes but that top part’s something I…
— Little string of black notes running along here, might be our dik-dik is it?
— Well I’d indicated castanets for the…
— Almost see the little fellow running there can’t you, glad my slides were a help, yes. Tum tumti, tumti tumti, of course I can’t really read it you know that, just a lot of hentracks to me. You know Bast I still find it one of life’s great mysteries, people like you who can look at these hentracks and hear those soaring tones that conjure up the vastness of the plains, the purple mountains’ majesty, here… I’m just looking for one of our big fellows here somewhere, here now this might be one yes… his clear nail traced a double mordent, — eland maybe?