Suddenly, in a downstairs window that was brilliantly illuminated by a street‑lamp not six yards away, Billy caught sight of a printed notice propped up against the glass in one of the upper panes. It said BED AND BREAKFAST. There was a vase of pussywillows, tall and beautiful, standing just underneath the notice. He stopped walking. He moved a bit closer. Green curtains (some sort of velvety material) were hanging down on either side of the window.
The pussywillows looked wonderful beside them. He went right up and peered through the glass into the room, and the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning in the hearth. On the carpet in front of the fire, a pretty little dachshund was curled up asleep with its nose tucked into its belly.
The room itself, so far as he could see in the half‑darkness, was filled with pleasant furniture. There was a baby‑grand piano and a big sofa and several plump armchairs and in one corner he spotted a large parrot in a cage. Animals were usually a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself; and all in all, it looked to him as though it would be a pretty decent house to stay in.
Certainly it would be more comfortable than The Bell and Dragon. On the other hand, a pub would be more congenial than a boarding‑house. There would be beer and darts in the evenings, and lots of people to talk to, and it would probably be a good bit cheaper, too. He had stayed a couple of nights in a pub once before and he had liked it. He had never stayed in any boarding houses, and, to be perfectly honest, he was a tiny bit frightened of them.
The name itself conjured up images of watery cabbage, rapacious landladies, and a powerful smell of kippers in the living‑room. After dithering about like this in the cold for two or three minutes, Billy decided that he would walk on and take a look at The Bell and Dragon before making up his mind. He turned to go.
And now a queer thing happened to him. He was in the act of stepping back and turning away from the window when all at once his eye was caught and held in the most peculiar manner by the small notice that was there. BED AND BREAKFAST, it said.
BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST. Each word was like a large black eye staring at him through the glass, holding him compelling him. Forcing him to stay where he was and not to walk away from that house, and the next thing he knew, he was actually moving across from the window to the front door of the house, climbing the steps that led up to it, and reaching for the bell. He pressed the bell. Far away in a back room he heard it ringing, and then at once ‑ it must have been at once because he hadn't even had time to take his finger from the bell‑button ‑ the door swung open and a woman was standing there. Comanche 4 keyboard controls youtube. Normally you ring the bell and you have at least a half minute’s wait before the door opens.
But this dame was like a jack‑in‑the‑box. He pressed the bell ‑ and out she popped!
It made him jump. She was about forty‑five or fifty years old and the moment she saw him, she gave him a warm welcoming smile. 'Please come in,' she said pleasantly.
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She stepped aside, holding the door wide open and Billy found himself automatically starting forward into the house. The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her into that house was extraordinarily strong. 'I saw the notice in the window,' he said holding himself back. 'But I'm always ready. Everything is always ready day and night in this house just on the off‑chance that an acceptable young gentleman will come along. And it is such a pleasure, my dear, such a very great pleasure when now and again I open the door and I see someone standing there who is just exactly right.' She was half‑way up the stairs, and she paused with one hand on the stair‑rail, turning her head and smiling down at him with pale lips.
'Like you,' she added, and her blue eyes travelled slowly all the way down the length of Billy's body, to his feet, and then up again. On the first‑floor landing she said to him, 'This floor is mine.' They climbed up a second flight.
'And this one is all yours,' she said. 'Here's your room. I do hope you'll like it.' She took him into a small but charming front bedroom switching on the light as she went in. So a few minute later, after unpacking his suitcase and washing his hands, he trotted downstairs to the ground floor and entered the living‑room. His landlady wasn't there, but the fire was glowing in the hearth and the little dachshund was still sleeping in front of it. The room was wonderfully warm and cosy.
I'm a lucky fellow, he thought, rubbing his hands. This is a bit of all right. He found the guest‑book lying open on the piano, so he took out his pen and wrote down his name and address. There were only two other entries above his on the page, and, as one always does with guest‑books, he started to read them. One was a Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff.
The other was Gregory W. Temple from Bristol.
That's funny, he thought suddenly. Christopher Mulholland. It rings a bell.
Now where on earth had he heard that rather unusual name before? Was he a boy at school? Was it one of his sister's numerous young men, perhaps, or a friend of his father's No, no, it wasn't any of those.
Felicity D'abreu Crosland
He glanced down again at the book. 'Well, you see ‑ both of these names, Mulholland and Temple, I not only seem to remember each one of them separately, so to speak, but somehow or other, in some peculiar way, they both appear to be sort of connected together as well. As though they were both famous for the same sort of thing, if you see what I mean ‑ like.
Like Dempsey and Tunney, for example, or Churchill and Roosevelt.' 'How amusing,' she said.
'But come over here now, dear, and sit down beside me on the sofa and I'll give you a nice cup of tea and a ginger biscuit before you go to bed.' 'You really shouldn't bother,' Billy said. 'I didn't mean you to do anything like that.'
He stood by the piano, watching her as she fussed about with the cups and saucers. He noticed that she had small, white, quickly moving hands, and red finger‑nails. 'I'm almost positive it was in the newspapers I saw them,' Billy said.
'I'll think of it in a second. I'm sure I will.' There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing like this which lingers just outside the borders of one's memory.
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Displayfusion 9.4.3 license key. He hated to give up. 'Now wait a minute,' he said. 'Wait just a minute. Christopher Mulholland. Wasn't that the name of the Eton schoolboy who was on a walkingtour through the West Country, and then all of a sudden. 'Oh no, my dear, that can't possibly be right because my Mr Mulholland was certainly not an Eton schoolboy when he came to me.
He was a Cambridge undergraduate. Come over here now and sit next to me and warm yourself in front of this lovely fire.
Your tea's all ready for you.' She patted the empty place beside her on the sofa, and she sat there smiling at Billy and waiting for him to come over. He crossed the room slowly, and sat down on the edge of the sofa. She placed his teacup on the table in front of him.
'come over here,' she said. 'How nice and cosy this is, isn't it?' Billy started sipping his tea. She did the same. For half a minute or so. Neither of them spoke. But Billy knew that she was looking at him.
Her body was half‑turned towards him, and he could feel her eyes resting on his face, watching him over the rim of her teacup. Now and again, he caught a whiff of a peculiar smell that seemed to emanate directly from her person. It was not in the least unpleasant, and it reminded him ‑ well, he wasn't quite sure what it reminded him of. Pickled walnuts? Or was it the corridors of a hospital? 'Of course,' she said 'And have you met my little Basil as well?
She nodded towards the dachshund curled up so comfortably in front of the fire. Billy looked at it. And suddenly, he realized that this animal had all the time been just as silent and motionless as the parrot. He put out a hand and touched it gently on the top of its back. The back was hard and cold, and when he pushed the hair to one side with his fingers, he could see the skin underneath it greyish‑black and dry and perfectly preserved.
Contents.Plot synopsis While vacationing at a resort in, the narrator encounters an elderly South American man named Carlos. They are soon joined by a young American naval cadet, who boasts about the reliability of his cigarette lighter. Carlos offers to bet his against the American's left little finger that the American cannot ignite the lighter ten times in a row. The American accepts, with the narrator agreeing to act as referee and hold the car key, and they adjourn to Carlos' room.After Carlos has a maid bring in the necessary supplies, he ties the American's left wrist to the table and the challenge begins. After the eighth successful strike, a woman bursts into the room and forces Carlos to drop the knife he has held ready to sever the American's finger.
She explains that Carlos is mentally disturbed, having played this game so often in their home country that they had to flee in order to keep the authorities from committing him to a psychiatric hospital. He has taken 47 fingers and lost 11 cars, but no longer has anything of his own to bet with; she won it all from him long ago, including the car he claimed to own. As the narrator offers the key to her, she reaches out to take it with a hand that has only its thumb and one finger still attached.Television adaptations. This short story was filmed as a 1960 episode of starring as the reluctant young gambler, as Carlos, the man who bets his car, and (McQueen's real life wife) as a woman McQueen's character meets.
It takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada. The car itself is merely described as a convertible. Although she is wearing gloves, her index, middle, and ring fingers are missing. In this adaptation, as part of the dramatic denouement after the woman appears and effectively aborts the bet, the gambler (McQueen) tries to relieve the stress of the young woman (Adams) by lighting her cigarette. The lighter fails to start when flicked for this however, a sly indicator of how narrowly the gambler avoided losing the bet.1960 cast. as the Host. as the Gambler.
as Carlos. as a Woman. as the Referee. as the Bellhop. as Carlos' Wife. as the Bartender.
The episode was remade again for the 1985 series with in McQueen's role, as Carlos, and (Bauer's wife at the time), and (Griffith's mother). In this adaptation, the lighter successfully lights ten times.
When the wife comes in, the tenth flame is blown out. Carlos is startled and drops the cleaver, nearly cutting off the young man's finger. After it is all over, he attempts to light himself a cigarette—and the lighter fails.
The wife has only her index finger left.1985 cast. as the Host (colorized 1960 introduction). as Carlos. as the Girl.
Roald Dahl Biography
Deeper in love song. as the Gambler. as the Waitress. as Rosa. as Bronson. as the BellhopRadio adaptations In 2009, it was dramatized on BBC Radio Four with playing the sinister old man.In 1949, the Dahl story was adapted by June Thomson for an episode of Radio City Playhouse. The adaptation, titled 'Collector's Item', split the 30 minute run time with an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, titled 'The Lake'.
Shortly after meeting in the bar, Carlos offers the gambler his green 1948 Cadillac parked outside. Due to the tastes of the time, some of the more grisly details were omitted from the presentation. The independent observer (the 'referee') character realizes the female is a victim of the gambler, but we do not learn the exact details of the gambler's previous bets.The scene is also parodied in an episode of, '. Stan Smith wagers his life and the lives of three men against starting a lawn mower ten times, believing he would be able to do it as he had seen a television show which instructed him how to start a lawn mower 'the first time, every time'. Despite this, he fails on his first go.Film adaptations Dahl's story was adapted for a scene from the 1980 Tamil movie, which involved a wager by a millionaire that a young man could not flick a cigarette into his lips ten times in a row without dropping it.
The millionaire had put up his Toyota car against the young man's little finger. The young man managed it nine times in a row, but chickened out and refused a tenth attempt, thereby defaulting on the wager.
The cigarette flick, in fact, was a signature move by iconic Tamil actor. The story was also the basis for 'The Man From Hollywood', the -directed segment of the 1995 film. The characters in this segment explicitly discuss the 1960 episode adaptation, although they incorrectly refer to the title as 'The Man from Rio'. In this version, the lighter fails on the first try and the referee - a bellhop who has been paid $1,000 for his trouble - chops off the finger and swiftly departs.1995 cast (as part of ).
as Chester Rush, who offers the bet. as Angela.
as Ted the Bellhop, who acts as referee and axe-man. as Norman, who accepts the bet. as Leo (uncredited)'Cut', a segment of the 2004 film (directed by ), was also inspired by the story.A modified version of the story entitled RCP 5 was filmed by the Rice Christian Collaborative in 2015. In this version, the terms of the bet are ramped up to create a greater sense of jeopardy. References.
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