Ron Goulart - The Curse of the Obelisk

THE CURSE OF THE OBELISK 67
CHAPTER 16
Harry let himself into another underground room. This one was large and had a vaulted ceiling.
It was lit by a row of gas lamps that had been strung along one of the walls. There were weapons
everywhere, some set up and ready to demonstrate, the rest in cases and crates.
Making his way slowly through the maze of arms, he spotted cases of repeating rifles, bayonets,
sabres and even double-barreled eight-gauge elephant guns. Sitting on a cleared space on the dark
stone floor were two wheeled Maxim automatic machine guns, loaded and ready to be fired for
prospective customers.
"Zaytoon's pursuit of the obelisk hasn't gotten in the way of his business anyhow."
Harry sat down to rest for a while on a crate of Navy Colts. His ribs were commencing to
bother him some. He scanned the room, taking a quick inventory of all the weapons stored there.
"Oh, I say, this is a deuced jolly surprise."
Turning, Harry saw Bertie Pennoyer standing in a doorway across the wide room. "Been hoping
I'd run into you."
Pennoyer yanked a .45 revolver from the waistband of his tweed trousers. "One hopes you're
not in a foolishly vengeful mood, old boy." He chuckled behind his free hand. "Hurt the old wrist,
did we? Pity. Still, could've been worse, eh?"
"I came to get Jennie," he said. "And Professor Stowe."
"That old duffer I'd almost give you gladly, don't you know. Stubborn as a ruddy ox and won't
do a blessed thing he's told." Pennoyer came down the three stone steps into the room. "Zaytoon,
don't you know, got a bee in his blooming bonnet that he ought to have the sod working for us
rather than for that great blubbery Orchardson. Why for pity's sake? I mean to say, who wants a
bunch of silly mechanical bats flapping about. Not that the bloke's consented to finish a single one
since we've had him nattering about the place."
"How come," asked Harry, not moving from his perch, "you're working for Zaytoon?"
Pennoyer gave another masked chuckle, then rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "The
lucre, old man," he answered. "Pennoyer fortune's been, thanks to my excesses and those of some
of my like-minded kinsmen, just about used up. That bloody expedition nearly broke me and the
Musée des Antiquités didn't pay anywhere near what they'd promised. Wasn't even able to smuggle
much in from Egypt. Nearly on my uppers until recently."
"What's Zaytoon paying you for?"
"I got onto the secret of the obelisk, old man." He leaned casually against the wall, the gaslight
making his monocle flash. "Actually, to be perfectly frank, I pilfered old Fodorsky's notes soon as I
got wind of what he'd stumbled onto. Fodorsky himself sold the information to that pig
Orchardson."
"There really is a secret?"
"Jolly well better be," said Pennoyer. "Turns out the blooming obelisk has a hollowed out
section near the tip. Held in that in an ivory casket is a supply of some fabulous lost Egyptian drug
that can extend life."