Manly Wade Wellman - John Thunstone 02 Read Online Free PDF Page B

sought the automatic elevator. As they went down, Sharon suddenly straightened and stared. “Who’s in
here with us?” she stammered.
                 “Nobody,”
said Thunstone. “Just a shadow there in the comer.”
                 To himself he wondered what invisible thing might have
cast that shadow.
                They walked together through the
lobby below and into the dining room and sat down at a table for two.
                 A
waiter came. Sharon asked for a soft-boiled egg, a toasted muffin, and a cup of tea.
Thunstone ordered scrambled eggs, country sausage, toast and coffee. Sharon smiled at him. “You always eat well,” she
said, “but you never get fat, all those big bones and muscles, but no extra
flesh.”
                 “Maybe
I worry it off,” he said.
                 Their
food came and they ate. Then they rose and Thunstone put down money for the bill
and a tip. “And now what?” asked Sharon .
                 “Today’s
program starts at ten o’clock ,
in the Whitney Auditorium, wherever that may be. Chancellor Pollock will open
things with a brief address of welcome. After that, a panel
discussion of the supernatural. It’s chaired by Professor Lee Pitt, a
man I think you’ll like, and I’ll be a member of the panel.”
                 “I’ll
come and hear that,” vowed Sharon .
                 “We’ll
go there together, and I’ll see you to a seat close to the front, where I can
keep an eye on you. All right, after the panel’s heard from, a discussion period, questions and answers. Then at one-thirty in the
afternoon Reuben Manco discusses supernormal matters among American Indians.”
                 “Reuben
Manco?” she repeated.
                 “A
Cherokee chieftain and medicine man, graduate of Dartmouth , extremely wise. He’s a friend of mine.
Then, at half-past three, Father Mark Bundren on the prevalence of witchcraft
and diabolism here and there today. You’ll like him too, I think. And at night, at eight o’clock , a theatrical presentation
at the Playmakers Theater. Shakespeare, I believe, various creepy sequences from his plays.”
                 “Everything
sounds diverting.”
                 In
the lobby, Thunstone spoke to the bell captain, who told him that Whitney
Auditorium was on campus, just across the street in front of the Inn . They walked out and across, found a big
square building of tawny brick, with massive pillars in front. As they entered
the auditorium, Thunstone heard someone call him by name. In the aisle were
grouped Lee Pitt, Shimada, Manco and Father Bundren.
                 Thunstone
led Sharon to join them and introduced them to her,
one after another. Shimada wore natty tweeds and smiled and bowed. Father
Bundren, in his clericals, greeted Sharon as ceremoniously as a Renaissance cardinal.
Pitt, too, was cordial. Manco, very dignified and deep-voiced, was the most
elaborately dressed of the party, He wore a long
hunting shirt of pale buckskin, fringed at sleeves and collar, with beadwork
designs. His head was bound at the temples with a leather band, also
beautifully beaded.
                 “We
have about ten minutes, and people are coming in fast,” said Pitt. “Where would
you like to sit, Countess?”
                “Somewhere close to the front,” she
replied. “Mr. Thunstone wants to keep an eye on me.”
                 “Nor
do I blame him for that,” said Pitt. “How about here, right on the aisle. Is
that all right?”
                 She
smiled and took her seat, and Pitt led Thunstone and the others through a side
door and up four steps to the wings. From there they could see the stage.
Several tables were set there end to end, with chairs behind them and upon them
microphones and a pitcher of water and glasses.