Read Online Manly Wade Wellman - John Thunstone 01 by What Dreams May Come (v1.1) - Free Book Online Page B

His wife cooks for me, and very well."
                 He
rose, and so did Thunstone.
                "See here," said Ensley
suddenly. "If you'd like to go right now and walk on Sweepside, I’ll take
you there. And when we come back, will you take lunch with me? I'll speak to
Mrs. Sayle, and I'll wager she’ll have something worth the eating."
                 "Thank
you, Mr. Ensley," said Thunstone. "You’re being very kind."
                 "Not
at all," said Ensley.

           CHAPTER 5
     
                 Ensley
went through a door into a room beyond. Thunstone heard him talking, and a
woman’s voice answering. Then Ensley reappeared.
                 “I’ve
asked Mrs. Sayle to do us a sort of justice at lunch,” he said. “She says she
has good seafood—this is a Friday—and a salad which she says will be a dream of
spring, and some kind of sweet to follow. Does that sound good?”
                 “It
sounds delicious,” Thunstone replied.
                 They
went out together, upon the broad porch.
                 “That
stick of yours interests me,” remarked Ensley. “Yet, if I may say so, you don’t
seem to need it to walk with.”
                 “I
carry it for old time’s sake,” said Thunstone. “It was given to me by a valued
friend, Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant.”
                 “I’ve
heard that name,” said Ensley, nodding. “An American student
of the occult and famous in his chosen field. Rather like yourself , I should think.”
                 “I’m
flattered,” said Thunstone, “to be thought like Judge Pursuivant in any way
whatsoever.”
                 “Are
you ready for our little walk?”
                 They
stepped down from the porch and walked around the house to the left. On that
side, yew trees grew close to the rough, dark wall, with barred windows looking
down upon them from above. A slatefaced path skirted close to the yews. Beyond
and behind the house, Ensley led the way to another path, moss-carpeted, that
ran between clumps of trees. It was hard to see the houses of Claines from that
position.
                “We can go directly to a gate this
way,” said Ensley. “Allow me to wonder, Mr. Thunstone, about your name. It has
a legendary sound.”
                 “I
can’t speak to its origin,” said Thunstone. “I do know that the name is English, and that an ancestor of mine came to Virginia in 1642.1 haven’t found any Thunstones here
in England , not that I’ve looked very carefully.”
                 “According
to the old story of Tom Thumb, King Thunstone succeeded King Arthur,” said
Ensley.
                 “I
didn’t know that anyone succeeded King Arthur,” said Thunstone. “I thought that
when he was carried to Avalon by the three queens, the Saxons took over.”
                 They
had come past the trees by now, walking among currant bushes. Sweepside was
visible beyond.
                 “Why,
as to that,” said Ensley, “Thunstone is a name with a Saxon sound, and there
were various Saxon kings after Arthur. Come this way to our gate through the
fence.”
                 Together
they approached the gate in the wire. It was a simple gate, of weathered wooden
slats nailed upright to two horizontal bars. On the far side, a roughly made
bridge of stone slabs lay across the little stream. Ensley lifted a heavy hasp,
opened the gate, and stepped aside to let Thunstone enter before him. Then he
followed and hooked the gate behind them. Far up the slope showed the considerable
stretch of Old Thunder, with the two men busy at its edge. Thunstone and Ensley
turned their steps in that direction. All along the slope grazed sheep, some of
them close at hand. The ground sprouted heavy green grass, with tufts of
flowered gorse here and