Bloodhounds Read Free Page B

said. "How can we have a serious discussion if we aren't allowed to analyze the plots?"
    The reason why Polly was everyone's choice as chairman was made clear. She explained evenly, but with a distinct note of authority, "Jessica, dear, we all love discussing crime stories, or we wouldn't be here, but another reason for coming is to get recommendations from each other of marvelous books we haven't read. Don't let's rob any book of its mystery."
    "I deliberately mentioned The Mousetrap because it isn't a book," Jessica pointed out.
    "Yes, and we appreciate your restraint, but just in case some of us haven't seen the play ..."
    "Is that a ruling from the chair?"
    "No, we don't go in for rules," Polly said serenely. "If you want to criticize the puzzle story in general terms, my dear, I'm positive that you can do it, and still make the points you wish to."
    "All right," offered Jessica. "What I'm saying without mentioning any titles—"
    "Thank you, dear," murmured Polly.
    "__is that in order to mystify people, really fox them, I mean, writers were forced into concocting story lines that were just plain silly, like one very well-known whodunit in which the person who tells the story is revealed as the killer in the last chapter."
    "The last chapter but two, if my memory serves me right," put in Shirley-Ann.
    Jessica widened her eyes. "I can see we're going to have to watch what we say in future."
    Shirley-Ann felt herself reddening and was relieved when Jessica softened the remark with a smile.
    Milo was not smiling. "What's wrong with the narrator doing it?"
    "Because that's a trick," said Jessica. "A piece of literary sleight-of-hand. She had to go to absurd lengths to make it work. I mean, the writer did. This is so difficult, Polly."
    "It didn't trouble me," said Milo. "And it didn't trouble millions of other people, judged by the success of the book you're talking about. It's still in print after seventy years."
    "Is that how long ago it was written?" said Polly, dangerously close to offending the principle she had recommended a second or two before. But it seemed she was only steering the discussion in a less adversarial direction. Her piloting couldn't be faulted.
    Miss Chilmark, the dragon empress, who had been silent up to now, waded in. "There's really no reason why a puzzle story shouldn't have other merits. I can think of a work with a wonderful, intricate puzzle that is intellectually pleasing as well as theologically instructive. A novel of character, with a respect for history ..."
    "Any guesses? I never got past page forty-two," murmured Jessica, unheard by Miss Chilmark, who continued to rhapsodize on the merits of The Name of the Rose until she was interrupted by the barking of a dog.
    "This will be Rupert," Jessica informed Shirley-Ann.
    "With a dog?"
    "The dog isn't the problem," said Milo.
    As it turned out, Milo was mistaken. The dog was a problem. Everyone looked toward the door, and a large brown mongrel, perhaps a cross between a setter and a German shepherd, stepped in and sniffed the air. It had a thick, wavy coat gleaming from the drenching it had got, and it trotted directly to the center of the circle and shook itself vigorously. Everyone was spattered. There were shrieks of outrage, and the meeting broke up in disorder. A chair was overturned, and Polly's handbag tipped upside down. The dog, excited by the commotion, rolled on its back, got up, and barked some more.
    Miss Chilmark cried, "Somebody take it outside. My dress is ruined."
    The owner appeared, a tall, thin, staring man in a black leather jacket, dark blue corduroys and a black beret, and rapped out a command.
    "Marlowe, heel!"
    The dog wagged its tail, gave another shimmy, and distributed more moisture.
    "It takes no notice of you whatsoever," Miss Chilmark complained. "You ought to have it on a leash. Or, better still, leave it at home."
    "That's a flint-hearted attitude, if I may say so, madam," Rupert replied in an accent redolent of