Stalking the Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page B

Used to Spoon With) , and quite a few advertising the Eastminster show. Carmelita, the defending champion, was prominently displayed in most of the Eastminster posters. Felina got too close to one of them, and suddenly Carmelita's image turned and snarled, and a flame shot out of her nostrils, barely missing the cat-girl. Felina hissed and displayed her claws, but the chimera was back in her original pose.
    â€œHer day is past,” said Jeeves contemptuously as he stared at the image. “She doesn't belong in the same ring with Fluffy.”
    â€œI wouldn't get into the ring with either of them unless I was up to date on my fire insurance,” said Mallory.
    â€œThis is not a laughing matter, Mr. Mallory,” said Jeeves. “Fluffy is the end result of thirty-seven generations of carefully planned breeding.”
    â€œIt's my nature to be sardonic,” replied Mallory. “I'm the result of even more generations of totally unplanned breeding.”
    The gremlin glared at him for a moment, then turned and continued walking. A few minutes later they reached the Plantagenet Arms, and passed through the lobby until they came to a huge bank of elevators. Jeeves walked past the first eleven and stopped in front of one labeled Express.
    The four of them entered, and the elevator shot up to the fifty-fourth floor penthouse, where the doors slid open and they stepped out into the large living room of Brody's suite.
    â€œNice,” commented Mallory, surveying the leather chairs and couches, a suit of armor, and half a dozen large gilt-framed prints, each of which showed British monarchs doing kingly things.
    â€œNice?” said Brody, walking in from another room. “Do you know what this place costs per day?”
    â€œProbably about six years’ rent on my office,” answered Mallory.
    â€œI doubt it,” said Brody. “You're not in a high-rent district.”
    â€œI stand corrected. By the way, this is my partner, Colonel Winnifred Carruthers. Winnifred, this is our client, Buffalo Bill Brody.”
    Winnifred stepped forward and shook Brody's hand vigorously. “Pleased to meet you,” she said.
    â€œCan you show us exactly where you kept Fluffy?”
    â€œShe had run of the place when Jeeves or I were here,” said Brody, “but he was out inspecting the grooming area over at Madison Round Garden and I was having lunch in the restaurant downstairs, so she was confined to her pen.”
    â€œMay we see it, please?” asked Winnifred.
    He nodded. “In the bedroom here,” he said, turning and reentering the room he had come out of.
    Mallory walked into the bedroom and uttered a low whistle. “I've seen smaller basketball courts,” he remarked.
    â€œRight there,” said Brody, pointing to an enclosure that was perhaps four feet on a side.
    â€œAsbestos?” asked Winnifred.
    â€œOf course,” replied Brody.
    â€œThere's no top,” said Mallory. “What stopped her from jumping out—or flying out, for that matter?”
    â€œShe can only fly for perhaps ten or twelve feet, no more,” said Jeeves. “And what stopped her is that her food was in the pen.”
    â€œSmart dragon,” commented Felina approvingly.
    â€œAs for jumping,” continued the gremlin, “dragons are not known for their jumping ability.”
    â€œThe top of the enclosure is perhaps thirty inches,” noted Winnifred. “Almost anyone could have reached over and picked her up.”
    Mallory turned to Jeeves. “Would she let a stranger do that?”
    â€œYes,” said Jeeves. “She is a show dragon.”
    â€œOkay, she's a show dragon. So what?”
    â€œYou don't understand,” continued the gremlin. “From earliest infancy she has been taught to accept being handled by anyone who approaches her, since one of them may be the judge, and you can't have a show dragon shrink away from being examined.