The Bell-Boy (19 page)
Authors: James Hamilton-Paterson
Downstairs in his office Mr Muffy was also making an early start, full of energy on this the first day of his new régime. He was studying a print-out with satisfaction. It proved clearly in black and white what he had suspected. If he ploughed back the salary he owed that disgraced bell-boy – who need not now be paid – he could begin rebuilding the pigeon loft on the roof. Pigeons were the thing nowadays. Chickens wanted too much room and were always getting ’flu. Pigeons looked after themselves. Only yesterday morning in the Wednesday Market he’d seen pigeon meat on sale at twenty-nine
piku
a kilo. What was more, next to baby goats pigeons were the most popular sacrificial animal. He’d heard the Vudusumin alone had a standing daily order for thirty.
Demand, supply. No economy could be entirely on the rocks while the priests drank dove blood. He tore off the paper and put the machine back in a drawer. Business efficiency. Realism. A plan. There was no arguing with that.
This ebook edition first published in 2014
by Faber and Faber Ltd
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All rights reserved
© James Hamilton-Paterson, 1990
The right of James Hamilton-Paterson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–31754–7
