Raymond Chandler Quote Of The Week: November 5-10, 2007

The wind had risen and had a dry taut feeling, tossing the tops of trees, and making the swung arc light up the side street cast shadows like crawling lava. I turned the car and drove east again.

The hock shop was on Santa Monica, near Wilcox, a quiet old-fashioned little place, washed gently by the lapping waves of time. In the front window there was everything you could think of, from a set of trout flies in a thin wooden box to a portable organ, from a folding baby carriage to a portrait camera with a four-in lens, from a mother-of-pearl lorgnette in a faded plush case to a Single Action Frontier Colt, .44 caliber model they still make for Western peace officers whose grandfathers taught them how to file the trigger and shoot by fanning the hammer back.

I went into the shop and a bell jangled over my head and somebody shuffled and blew his nose far at the back and steps came. An old Jew in a tall black skull cap came along behind the counter, smiling at me over cut out glasses.

I got my tobacco pouch out, got the Brasher Doubloon out of that and laid it on the counter. The window in front was clear glass and I felt naked. No paneled cubicles with handcarved spittoons and doors that locked themselves as you closed them.

-- The High Window, 1942

Comments

[tylerh]

Nice hook, leading with a Santana winds reference when we just finished a doozy of a Santana.

However, surely we can find something in Chandler about a corrupt cop -- dare I say Sheriff?

Also, two minor typos: "5turned the car and drove east " is presumably "I turned the car and drove east ", and " .44 caliber model the still make" is, perhaps, " .44 caliber model they still make"

Thanks for the quote !

[Jubal]

Thanks for catching those, tylerh.

As for the request, I'll see what I can find. "Farewell, My Lovely" had one, as I recall.