Pax Britannia: Human Nature Read Online Free PDF Page B

would appear that your services are not required after all."
    Ulysses stood there, stunned, not knowing what to say. He glanced back at this manservant who raised his left eyebrow in response; as much of a look of surprise as Nimrod was ever likely to give.
    This wasn't getting him anywhere, Ulysses thought, and now that Gabriel Wraith was involved he was even more intrigued. Time to turn on the old Quicksilver charm .
    "Very well," Ulysses said, relaxing his posture, suddenly aware of how tense he had become at mention of his rival's name. "Fair's fair, I suppose. The early bird, and all that. But it's a personal shame, it really is. A real pity."
    "What is?" Cruickshank asked, unable to help himself, wrong-footed by Ulysses' sudden change of temperament.
    "I've heard so much about your little exhibition here that I was going to offer my services for free, simply to be able to say that I had some small part to play with the phenomenon of the season."
    "Really?" Cruickshank said, his ears pricking up at the mention of 'services for free', Ulysses supposed. "Well, that's very kind of you, Mr Quicksilver. But, as I said, Mr Wraith is already on the case."
    Ulysses detected the barely concealed disappointment in Cruickshank's tone, like that of a man who realises he's just missed out on that most elusive of meals - a free lunch. Ulysses also noted that Cruickshank hadn't bothered to question why, if he was so eager to visit the freak show he had waited until after the theft to bother to come at all.
    "I've heard tell that it is the finest collection this side of Dusseldorf."
    "And so it should be, sir. It has taken me nearly thirty years to gather this most... unique of collections."
    Vanity and self-importance had done their bit. He had the proprietor on side now.
    "Well, seeing as how we're here now, you don't mind if we take a look around for ourselves, do you?"
    "Be my guest, sir."
    "We'll be sure to keep out of Mr Wraith's way."
    "Very good, sir."
    Cruickshank moved aside, and Ulysses strode into the man's inner sanctum, into his chamber of delights, as it were, Nimrod close behind as usual.
    Ulysses took in the entirety of the collection laid out around the room, having to turn his head and crane his neck to take in all its wonders. And there was certainly a very great deal crammed into the room, for the benefit of the viewing public.
    It seemed to Ulysses' experienced eye that there wasn't a walnut-panel that was free of some manner of exhibit, if not several. Hung from the walls or filling dusty glass display cases were holy relics recovered from the wreck of a Spanish galleon, their gold-leaf and gesso decorations scoured clean by the relentless attentions of the sea; earthenware pitchers and porcelain from China; an icon of Madonna and Child from Russia, the wood dry and cracked; a necklace of monkey teeth; the broken-off top of a Celtic stone cross; the carved dragon-prow of a Viking longship; a Javanese ritual-dance mask, that of a red-eyed, leering demon; Egyptian galibaias - he had worn such a thing himself whilst on secondment to the land of the pharaohs; a snake-charmer's basket and pipes from Bombay; human skulls, their eye-sockets filled with clay and flints; the baubles and bells of King Henry VIII's fool; the Turkish Emperor's gold seal; a pharaoh's death-mask; scrolls of papyrus; an Aztec codex; an intricately worked astrolabe; a Viking lodestone compass; a Neolithic quern-stone; and a morose limestone gargoyle, pilfered from a church in Antwerp.
    Or at least that was what the exhibits all claimed to be, each label carefully filled out in a tight copperplate hand.
    Ulysses half expected to see the green-eyed monkey god of Sumatra snuck in there, buried amongst the other items, having mysteriously become part of the exhibition.
    And the objects - or object d'art, as Mycroft Cruickshank might have preferred it - were not all man-made either; far from it. There were the polished shells of sea turtles and giant