The Crozier Pharohs
Gladys Mitchell
Bradley 66
A 3S digital back-up edition 1.0
click for scan notes and proofing history
Contents
chapter 1: mainly for dog-fanciers
chapter 2: eccentric patient
chapter 3: a thief in the dog- watches
chapter 4: dead in the river
chapter 5: theories and speculations
chapter 6: the poacher’s story
chapter 7: trouble at crozier lodge
chapter 8: kennel-maid
chapter 9: poacher and doctor
chapter 10: dead in the valley
chapter 11: scalpels
chapter 12: information from crozier lodge
chapter 13: brother and sister
chapter 14: full marks for artistic impression
chapter 15: watersmeet again
chapter 16: exhumations
chapter 17: judgement suspended
Also by Gladys Mitchell
speedy death
mystery of a butcher’s shop
the longer bodies
the saltmarsh murders
death at the opera
the devil at saxon wall
dead man’s morris
come away death
st. peter’s finger
printer’s error
brazen tongue
hangman’s curfew
when last i died
laurels are poison
the worsted viper
sunset over soho
my father sleeps
the rising of the moon
here comes a chopper
death and the maiden
the dancing druids
tom brown’s body
groaning spinney
the devil’s elbow
the echoing strangers
merlin’s furlong
faintley speaking
watson’s choice
twelve horses and the hangman’s noose
the twenty-third man
spotted hemlock
the man who grew tomatoes
say it with flowers
the nodding canaries
my bones will keep
adders on the heath
death of a delft blue
pageant of murder
the croaking raven
skeleton island
three quick and five dead
dance to your daddy
gory dew
lament for leto
a hearse on may day
the murder of busy lizzie
a javelin for jonah
winking at the brim
convent on styx
late, late in the evening
noonday and night
fault in the structure
wraiths and changelings
mingled with venom
nest of vipers
mudflats of the dead
uncoffin’d clay
the whispering knights
the death-cap dancers
here lies gloria mundy
death of a burrowing mole
the greenstone griffins
cold, lone and still
no winding-sheet
Michael Joseph LONDON
First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph Ltd 44 Bedford Square, London WCl
1984 Second impression February 1985
© The Executors of the Estate of Gladys Mitchell 1984
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Copyright owner.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Mitchell, Gladys
The Crozier Pharaohs.
I. Title
823'.912[F] PR6025.I832
ISBN 0 7181 2472 3
Photo-set by Colset Pte Ltd, Singapore
Printed in Great Britain by Hollen Street Press, Slough and bound by
Hunter & Foulis Ltd,
Edinburgh
To Ishma and Crispin
Acknowledgement
The author gives grateful thanks to Dr Monica Still, hon. secretary of the Pharaoh Hounds Club, for her invaluable information regarding these splendid dogs.
Doggerel
The hounds in this my story
Are overmatched in glory
By those whose names they carry,
Yet here Nile gods may tarry.
Isis, Osiris, falcon-headed Horus,
Nephthys, Anubis, Amon, bay in chorus.
Gods named these hounds, for better or for worse,
For dog, heaven bless us! — god is…in reverse.
1
Mainly For Dog-Fanciers
^ »
I’ve been looking them up while I was in London, ’ said Laura.
‘Friends of yours?’ asked Dame Beatrice.
‘No. I’ve never met them.’ Perceiving a look of innocent enquiry on her employer’s yellow countenance, Laura hastened to add, ‘Oh, I see what you mean. In saying I’ve been looking them up, I was referring to a spot of research I’ve done into the history of those hounds the Rant sisters told us they keep. Very interesting. Do you know that the breed has remained true to type for more than five thousand years?’
‘Dear me! Then the Pharaoh hound must be the oldest domesticated dog in the world. I see that you are bursting with your newly acquired knowledge. Share it with me while I get on with my knitting. ’
‘What’s it supposed to be?’ Laura looked critically at the shapeless mess of wool which cascaded from Dame Beatrice’s wooden knitting needles.
‘Well,’ said its creator, regarding her handiwork with toleration, ‘it began as a pullover, but it seems to have lost its way. ’
‘Haven’t you got a pattern?’
‘No. I hoped my innate genius would suffice. ’
‘Who is the pullover meant to fit?’
‘I have no idea. I thought I would knit it and then bestow it when I saw what size it turned out to be. ’
‘One way of doing things, I suppose.’
‘Tell me about these Pharaoh hounds. They will distract my mind from this disastrous attempt at improvisation.’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll take it back to its stitches of origin after dinner and knit it up again to fit Rory. He’s the only one of your relations who would be seen dead in that colour. Tell you about the Rant Pharaohs? Right.’
Laura’s account of the hobby of the Rant sisters was given with conviction and enthusiasm. The Pharaoh hounds came originally from Egypt, as, with such a name, they could scarcely fail to do. They were the hunting dogs of Egyptian kings and nobles, although there was a bas-relief with hieroglyphics from the reign of Amenemhet the First which indicated that wealthy farmers used the hounds as herd dogs for cattle. The picture showed a man in a rather inadequate lower garment followed by an alert-looking dog. The man, flourishing a stout stick, and the dog, with tail in air, were advancing towards two fighting bulls which had managed to get their horns interlocked. The dog had a collar with two loose ends which reminded Laura (she said) of the bands which eighteenth-century clergymen used to wear. ‘I say,’ said Laura, breaking off, ‘I wouldn’t do any more of that knitting until you’ve let me see to it. The length of it is beginning to make me think of Eternity, a concept I can’t absorb.’
‘I feel the same about what the astronomers tell us of Outer Space,’ said Dame Beatrice, obediently laying aside her knitting.
‘Time and Space, and we’re back to Einstein, I suppose,’ said Laura. ‘Do you think jet lag comes into it somewhere?’
‘Go on about your visit to London, ’ said her employer. ‘You appear to have filled in your time well.’
‘Oh, the Pharaoh hounds, yes. Of course I did see quite a lot of Gavin while I was there. ’
‘It has always intrigued me that you call your husband by his surname, even to his face.’
‘Well, Robert is the rather facetious name which used to be given by students and other semi-educated persons to the bobby on the beat. As you know, Ian is Gavin’s other name, but I don’t use it for fear of confusing him with my brother. That’s all there is to it. As for my researches, there were hieroglyphics with the picture of the farmer, the dog and the bulls and I was given a translation of the name of the dog. It was “Breath of Life of Senbi”. I think it must be Breath of Life who has been adopted by the Pharaoh Hound Club as their badge.’