My Uncle Oswald Read online

'I can get it.'

  'It will cost you one thousand English pounds, sahib. Very cheap.'

  'Then forget it,' I said, turning away.

  'Five hundred,' he said.

  'Fifty,' I said. 'I'll give you fifty pounds.'

  'One hundred.'

  'No. Fifty. That's all I can afford.'

  He shrugged and spread his palms upward. 'You find the money,' he said. 'I find the powder. Six o'clock tonight.'

  'How will I know you won't be giving me sawdust or something?'

  'Sahib!' he cried. 'I never cheat anyone.'

  'I'm not so sure.'

  'In that case,' he said, 'we will test the powder on you by giving you a little dose before you pay me. How's that?'

  'Good idea,' I said. 'See you at six.'

  One of the London banks had an overseas branch in Khartoum. I went there and changed some of my French francs for pounds. At six p.m. I sought out the hall-porter. He was now in the foyer of the hotel.

  'You got it?' I asked him.

  He pointed to a large brown-paper parcel standing on the floor behind a pillar. 'You want to test it first, sahib? You are very welcome because this is the absolute top class quality beetle powder in the Sudan. One pinhead of this and you go jig-a-jig all night long and half the next day.'

  I didn't think he would have offered me a trial run if the stuff hadn't been right, so I gave him the money and took the parcel.

  An hour later, I was on the night train to Cairo. Within ten days, I was back in Paris and knocking on the door of Madame Boisvain's house in the Avenue Marceau. I had my precious parcel with me. There had been no trouble with the French customs as I disembarked at Marseilles. In those days, they searched for knives and guns but nothing else.

  3

  I announced to Madame B that I was now going to stay for quite a while but that I had one request to make. I was a science student, I told her. She said she knew that. It was my wish, I went on, not only to learn French during my stay in France, but also to pursue my scientific studies. I would therefore be conducting certain experiments in my room which involved the use of apparatus and chemicals that could be dangerous or poisonous to the inexperienced. Because of this, I wished to have a key to my room, and nobody should enter it.

  'You are going to blow us all up!' she cried, clutching her cheeks.

  'Have no fear, madame,' I said. 'I am merely taking the normal precautions. My professors have taught me always to do this.'

  'And who will clean your room and make your bed?'

  'I will,' I said. 'This will save you much trouble.'

  She muttered and grumbled a fair bit, but gave way to me in the end.

  Supper with the Boisvains that evening was pigs' trotters in white sauce, another repellent dish. Monsieur B tucked into it with all the usual sucking noises and exclamations of ecstasy, and the glutinous white sauce was smeared over his entire face by the time he had finished. I excused myself from the table just as he was preparing to transfer his false teeth from mouth to fingerbowl. I went upstairs to my room and locked the door.

  For the first time, I opened my big brown-paper parcel. The powder had been packed, thank goodness, in two large biscuit tins. I opened one up. The stuff was pale grey and almost as fine as flour. Here before me, I told myself, lay what was probably the biggest crock of gold a man could ever find. I say 'probably' because as yet I had no proof of anything. I had only the Major's word that the stuff worked and the hall-porter's word that it was the genuine article.

  I lay on my bed and read a book until midnight. I then undressed and got into my pyjamas. I took a pin and held it upright over the open tin of powder. I sprinkled a pinch of powder over the upright pinhead. A tiny cluster of grey powder grains remained clinging to the top of the pin. Very carefully, I raised this to my mouth and licked off the powder. It tasted of nothing. I noted the time by my watch, then I sat on the edge of the bed to await results.

  They weren't long coming. Precisely nine minutes later, my whole body went rigid. I began to gasp and gurgle. I froze where I was sitting, just as Major Grout had frozen on his verandah with the glass of whiskey in his hand. But because I'd had a much weaker dose than him, this period of paralysis lasted only for a few seconds. Then I felt, as the good Major had so aptly put it, a burning sensation in the region of my groin. Within another minute, my member - and again the Major had said it better than I can - my member had become as stiff and erect as the mainmast of a topsail schooner.

  Now for he final test. I stood up and crossed to the door. I opened it quietly and slipped along the passage. I entered the bedroom of Mademoiselle Nicole, and surely enough, there she was tucked up in bed with the candle already lit, waiting for me. 'Bonsoir, monsieur,' she whispered, giving me another of those formal handshakes. 'You have come along for your lesson number two, yes?'

  I didn't say anything. Already, as I got into bed beside her, I was beginning to slide off into another of those weird fantasies that seem to engulf me whenever I come to close quarters with a female. This time I was back in the Middle Ages and Richard Coeur de Lion was King of England. I was the champion jouster of the country, the noble knight who was once more about to display his prowess and strength before the King and all his courtiers in the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

  My opponent was a gigantic and fearsome female from France who had butchered seventy-eight valiant Englishmen in tournaments of jousting. But my steed was brave and my lance was of tremendous length and thickness, sharp-pointed, vibrant and made of the strongest steel. And the King shouted out 'Bravo, Sir Oswald, the man with the mighty lance! No one but he has the strength to wield so huge a weapon! Run her through, my lad! Run her through!' So I went galloping into battle with my giant lance pointed straight and true at the Frenchy's most vital region, and I thrust at her with mighty thrusts, all swift and sure, and in a trice I had pierced her armour and had her screaming for mercy. But I was in no mood to be merciful. Spurred on by the cheers of the King and his courtiers, I drove my steely lance ten thousand times into that writhing body and then ten thousand times more, and I heard the courtiers shouting, 'Thrust away, Sir Oswald! Thrust away and keep on thrusting!' And then the King's voice was saying, 'Begad, methinks the brave fellow is going to shatter that great lance of his if he doesn't stop soon!' But my lance did not shatter, and in a glorious finale, I impaled the giant Frenchy female upon the spiked end of my trusty weapon and went galloping around the arena, waving the body high above my head to shouts of 'Bravo!' and 'Gadzooks!' and 'Victor ludorum!'

  All this, as you can imagine, took some time. How long, I had not the faintest idea, but when I finally surfaced again, I jumped out of the bed and stood there triumphant, looking down upon my prostrate victim. The girl was panting like a stag at bay and I began to wonder whether I might not have done her an injury. Not that I cared much about that.

  'Well, mademoiselle,' I said, 'am I still in the kindergarten?'

  'Oh no!' she cried, twitching her long limbs. 'Oh no, monsieur! No, no, no! You are ferocious and you are marvellous and I feel like my boiler has exploded!'

  That made me feel pretty good. I left without another word and sneaked back along the corridor to my own room. What a triumph! The powder was fantastic! The Major had been right! And the hall-porter in Khartoum had not let me down! I was on my way now to the Crock of Gold and nothing could stop me. With these happy thoughts, I fell asleep.

  The next morning, I immediately began to set matters in train. You will remember that I had a science scholarship. I was, therefore, well-versed in physics and chemistry and several other things besides, but chemistry had always been my strongest subject.

  I therefore knew already all about the process of making a simple pill. In the year 1912, which is where we are now, it was customary for pharmacists to make many of their own pills on the premises, and for this they always used something called a pill-machine. So I went shopping in Paris that morning, and in the end I found, in a back street on the Left Ba
nk, a supplier of secondhand pharmaceutical apparatus. From him I bought an excellent little pill-machine that turned out good professional pills in groups of twenty-four at a time. I bought also a pair of highly sensitive chemists' scales.

  Next, I found a pharmacy that sold me a large quantity of calcium carbonate and a smaller amount of tragacanth. I also bought a bottle of cochineal. I carried all this back to my room and then I cleared the dressing-table and laid out my supplies and my apparatus in good order.

  Pill-making is a simple matter if you know how. The calcium carbonate, which is neutral and harmless, comprises the bulk of the pill. You then add the precise quantity by weight of the active ingredient, in my case cantharadin powder. And finally, as an excipient, you put in a little tragacanth. An excipient is simply the cement that makes everything stick together and harden into an attractive pill. I weighed out sufficient of each substance to make twenty-four fairly large and impressive pills. I added a few drops of cochineal which is a tasteless scarlet colouring matter. I mixed everything together well and truly in a bowl and fed the mixture into my pill-machine. In a trice, I had before me twenty-four large red pills of perfect shape and hardness. And each one, if I had done my weighing and mixing properly, contained exactly the amount of cantharadin powder that would lie on top of a pinhead. Each one, in other words, was a potent and explosive aphrodisiac.

  I was still not ready to make my move.

  I went out again into the streets of Paris and found a commercial box-maker. From him, I bought one thousand small round cardboard boxes, one inch in diameter. I also bought cotton-wool.

  Next, I went to a printer and ordered one thousand tiny round labels. On each label the following legend was to be printed in English:

  The labels were designed to fit exactly upon the lids of my little cardboard boxes.

  Two days later, I collected the labels. I bought a pot of glue. I returned to my room and stuck labels on to twenty-four box-lids. Inside each box, I made a nest of white cotton-wool. Upon this I placed a single scarlet pill and closed the lid.

  I was ready to go.

  As you will have guessed long ago, I was about to enter the commercial world. I was going to sell my Potency Pills to a clientele that would soon be screaming for more and still more. I would sell them individually, one only in each box, and I would charge an exorbitant price.

  And the clientele? Where would they come from? How would a seventeen-year-old boy in a foreign city set about finding customers for this wonder-pill of his? Well, I had no qualms about that. I had only to find one single person of the right type and let him try one single pill and the ecstatic recipient would immediately come galloping back for a second helping. He would also whisper the news to his friends and the glad tidings would spread like a forest fire.

  I already knew who my first victim was going to be.

  I have not yet told you that my father, William Cornelius, was in the Diplomatic Service. He had no money of his own, but he was a skilful diplomat and he managed to live very comfortably on his pay. His last post had been Ambassador to Denmark, and he was presently marking time with some job in the Foreign Office in London before getting a new and more senior appointment. The current British Ambassador to France was someone by the name of Sir Charles Makepiece. He was an old friend of my father's and before I left England my father had written a letter to Sir Charles asking him to keep an eye on me.

  I knew what I had to do now, and I set about doing it straight away. I put on my best suit of clothes and made my way to the British Embassy. I did not, of course, go in by the Chancery Entrance. I knocked on the door of the Ambassador's Private Residence, which was in the same imposing building as the Chancery, but at the rear. The time was four in the afternoon. A flunkey in white knee-breeches and a scarlet coat with gold buttons opened the door and glared at me. I had no visiting card, but I managed to convey the news that my father and mother were close friends of Sir Charles and Lady Makepiece and would he kindly inform her Ladyship that Oswald Cornelius Esquire had come to pay his respects.

  I was put into a sort of vestibule where I sat down and waited. Five minutes later, Lady Makepiece swept into the room in a flurry of silk and chiffon. 'Well, well!' she cried, taking both my hands in hers. 'So you are William's son! He always had good taste, the old rascal! We got his letter and we've been waiting for you to call.'

  She was an imposing wench. Not young, of course, but not exactly fossilized either. I put her around forty. She had one of those dazzling ageless faces that seemed to be carved out of marble, and lower down there was a torso that tapered to a waist I could have circled with my two hands. She sized me up with one swift penetrating glance, and she seemed to be satisfied with what she saw because the next thing she said was, 'Come in, William's son, and we shall have a dish of tea together and a chat.'

  She led me by the hand through a number of vast and superbly appointed rooms until we arrived at a smallish, rather cosy place furnished with a sofa and armchairs. There was a Boucher pastel on one wall and a Fragonard watercolour on another. 'This,' she said, 'is my own private little study. From here I organize the social life of the Embassy.' I smiled and blinked and sat down on the sofa. One of those fancy-dress flunkeys brought tea and sandwiches on a silver tray. The tiny triangular sandwiches were filled with Gentleman's Relish. Lady Makepiece sat beside me and poured the tea. 'Now tell me all about yourself,' she said.

  There followed a whole lot of questions and answers about my family and about me. It was all pretty banal but I knew I must stick it out for the sake of my great plan. So we went on talking for maybe forty minutes, with her Ladyship frequently patting my thigh with a jewelled hand to emphasize a point. In the end, the hand remained resting on my thigh and I felt a slight finger-pressure. Ho-ho, I thought. What's the old bird up to now? Then suddenly she sprang to her feet and began pacing nervously up and down the room. I sat watching her. Back and forth she paced, hands clasped together across her front, head twitching, bosom heaving. She was like a tightly coiled spring. I didn't know what to make of it. 'I'd better be going,' I said, standing up.

  'No, no! Don't go!'

  I sat down again.

  'Have you met my husband?' she blurted out. 'Obviously you haven't. You've just arrived. He's a lovely man. A brilliant person. But he's getting on in years, poor lamb, and he can't take as much exercise as he used to.'

  'Bad luck,' I said. 'No more polo and tennis.'

  'Not even ping-pong,' she said.

  'Everyone gets old,' I said.

  'I'm afraid so. But the point is this.' She stopped and waited.

  I waited, too.

  We both waited. There was a very long silence.

  I didn't know what to do with the silence. It made me fidget. 'The point is what, madame?' I said.

  'Can't you see I'm trying to ask you something?' she said at last.

  I couldn't think of an answer to that one, so I helped myself to another of those little sandwiches and chewed it slowly.

  'I want to ask you a favour, mon petit garcon,' she said. 'I imagine you are quite good at games?'

  'I am rather,' I said, resigning myself to a game of tennis with her, or ping-pong.

  'And you wouldn't mind?'

  'Not at all. It would be a pleasure.' It was necessary to humour her. All I wanted was to meet the Ambassador. The Ambassador was my target. He was the chosen one who would receive the first pill and thus start the whole ball rolling. But I could only reach him through her.

  'It's not much I'm asking,' she said.

  'I am at your service, madame.'

  'You really mean it.'

  'Of course.'

  'You did say you were good at games?'

  'I played rugger for my school,' I said. 'And cricket. I'm a pretty decent fast bowler.'

  She stopped pacing and gave me a long look.

  At that point a tiny little warning-bell began tinkling somewhere inside my head. I ignored it. Whatever happened, I must not anta
gonize this woman.

  'I'm afraid I don't play rugger,' she said. 'Or cricket.'

  'My tennis is all right, too,' I said. 'But I haven't brought my racquet.' I took another sandwich. I loved the taste of anchovies. 'My father says anchovies destroy the palate,' I said, chewing away. 'He won't have Gentleman's Relish in the house. But I adore it.'

  She took a great big deep breath and her breasts blew up like two gigantic balloons. 'I'll tell you what I want,' she whispered softly. 'I want you to ravish me and ravish me and ravish me! I want you to ravish me to death! I want you to do it now! Now! Quickly!'

  By golly, I thought. Here we go again.

  'Don't be shocked, dear boy.'

  'I' not shocked.'

  'Oh yes you are. I can see it on your face. I should never have asked you. You are so young. You are far too young. How old are you? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know. You are very delicious, but schoolboys are forbidden fruit. What a pity. It's quite obvious you have not yet entered the fiery world of women. I don't suppose you've ever even touched one.'

  That nettled me. 'You are mistaken, Lady Makepiece,' I said. 'I have frolicked with females on both sides of the Channel. Also on ships at sea.'

  'Why, you naughty boy! I don't believe it!'

  I was still on the sofa. She was standing above me. Her big red mouth was open and she was beginning to pant. 'You do understand I would never have mentioned it if Charles hadn't been... sort of past it, don't you?'

  'Of course I understand,' I said, wriggling a bit. 'I understand very well. I am full of sympathy. I don't blame you in the least.'

  'You really mean that?'

  'Of course.'

  'Oh, you gorgeous boy!' she cried and she came at me like a tigress.

  There is nothing particularly illuminating to report about the barney that followed, except perhaps to mention that her Ladyship astounded me with her sofa-work. Up until then, I had always regarded the sofa as a rotten romping-ground, though heaven knows I had been forced to use it often enough with the London debutantes while the parents were snoring away upstairs. The sofa to me was a beastly uncomfortable thing surrounded on three sides by padded walls and with a horizontal area that was so narrow one was continually rolling off it onto the floor. But Lady Makepiece was a sofa-wizard. For her, the sofa was a kind of gymnastic horse upon which one vaulted and bounced and flipped and rolled and achieved the most remarkable contortions.