A Quiver Full of Arrows

First came his financial caper

NOT A PENNY MORE,

NOT A PENNY LESS.

Then a political thriller

SHALL

WE TELL THE
PRESIDENT?

Then the brilliant bestsellers

KANE AND ABEL and

THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER

Now
Jeffrey Archer has taken up a new challenge with this, his first collection of
short stories. The locations move from New York and London to Mexico and

Nigeria.
Each tale reveals the author’s talents as a short storyteller, and, as befits
the form, he uses the stories to build up a small cast of characters and then
shock the reader with an unexpected final twist.

Few
people will guess the endings of any of the tales, and everyone will have their
own favourite. What is certain is that with this archer every story unerringly
hits its mark!

A
QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS

‘Somerset
Maughamnever penned anything so swift or so urbanely satiric as this’

Publishers Weekly

‘A
quite delightful collection of short stories… distinguished by lightness of
touch and ideas. I particularly recommend “Old Love”‘

Liverpool
Daily Post

‘When
a top storyteller like Jeffrey Archer turns his talent to producing short
stories, the scene is set for the sort of memorable mix that’s much in demand
these days.

A
QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS

adds
to his already impressive literary score’

Bolton Evening News

‘Jeffrey
Archer’s quiver is full of sharp arrows. His stories show evidence of much
polish... and the result is always neat and satisfying’

Huddersfield Daily Examiner a’

A
QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS

‘A
QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS shows the same gins of vivid characterization and smooth
writing as his three successful novels.... He has a neat talent for giving each
of his twelve tails a quirky, unexpected twist at the end’

South
Wales Argus

‘Jeffrey
Archer’s strength in

A
QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS

is
his ability to absorb the reader immediately in a variety of different
situations’

Sheffield
Morning Telegraph

‘In
a QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS

Jeffrey
Archer enhances his reputation with a dozen short stories. All have different
settings and are well written’

North Western Evening Mail

‘Mr
Archer puts his storytelling skills which have made his novels such a
commercial success to equally effective use on a dozen nicely put together
tales’

Bradford Telegraph

Jeffrey
Archer is a master story-teller, the author of six novels which have all been
worldwide bestsellers.

NOT
A PENNY MORE, NOT A PENNY LESS

was
his first book, which achieved instant success. Next came the tense and
terrifying thriller SHALL WE TELL THE PRESIDENT?

followed
by

A
QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS,

a
collection of short stories. After this came the triumphant bestseller

KANE
AND ABEL,

and
its superb sequel

THE
PRODIGAL DAUGHTER.

His
latest novel is

FIRST
AMONG EQUALS,

the
story of four men’s battle to control our lives.

Jeffrey
Archer was born in 1940 and educated at

Wellington
School and Brasenose College, Oxford. He represented Oxford, Somerset, and
Great Britain in the loo metres in the early sixties, and became the youngest
member of the House of Commons when he won the by election at Louth in 1969. He
wrote his first novel,

NOT
A PENNY MORE, NOT A PENNY LESS,

on
leaving the House in 1974. In September 1985 he was appointed Deputy Chairman
of the Conservative Party.

He
is married with two children and lives in London and Cambridge.

To Robin and Carolyn

A190 by Jeffrey Archer

and available in Coronet
Books

Not a Penny More,

Not a Penny Less,

Shall We Tell The
President?

Kane and Abel

The Prodigal Daughter

First
Among Equals

ID
: L CT

Jeffrey
Archer c

CORONET
BOOKS

Hodder
and Stoughton

Copyright
~ 1980 by Jeffrey Archer 1First published in Great Britain 1980 by Hodder and
Stoughton Ltd

Coronet
edition 1981 Reprinted 1981 three times Reprinted 19S2 four times Reprinted
1983 five times Reprinted 1984 four times Reprinted 1985 twice Reprinted 1986
once This impression August 1986

British
Library C.l.P.

Archer,
Jeffrey

A
quiver full of arrows. – (Coronet books) 1. Short stories, English

I.
Title

823’.91
4[F] PR605.R/

ISBN
0 340 27272 4

The
characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no
relation to any real person or actual happening This book is sold subject to
the condition 1that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher s prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which this is published and
without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the
subsequent purchaser.

Printed
and bound in Great Britain for Hodder and Stoughton Paperbacks, a division of
Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., Mill Road, 1Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent (Editorial
Office: 47 Bedford Square. London, WC1 B3DP

by
Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd., Bungay, Suffolk

Of these twelve short stories, eleven are based on known incidents (some
embellished with considerable licence).

Only one is totally the result of my own imagination.

In the case of ‘The Century’ I took my theme from three different cricket
matches. Lovers of Wisden will have to do some considerable delving to uncover
them.

‘The Luncheon’ was inspired by W. Somerset Maugham.

J.A.

T
he little Chinese statue was the next item
to come under the auctioneer’s hammer. Lot 103 caused those quiet murmurings
that always precede the sale of a masterpiece. The auctioneer’s assistant held
up the delicate piece of ivory for the packed audience to admire while the
auctioneer glanced around the room to be sure he knew where the serious bidders
were seated. I studied my catalogue and read the detailed description of the
piece, and what was known of its history.

The statue had been purchased in Ha Li Chuan
in 1871 and was referred to as what Sotheby’s quaintly described as “the
property of a gentleman”, usually meaning that some member of the aristocracy
did not wish to admit that he was having to sell off one of the family
heirlooms. I wondered if that was the case on this occasion and decided to do
some research to discover what had caused the little Chinese statue to find its
way into the auction rooms on that Thursday morning over one hundred years
later.

“Lot No. 103,” declared the auctioneer.
“What am I bid for this magnificent example of...?”

Sir Alexander Heathcote, as well as being a
gentleman, was an exact man. He was exactly six-foot-three and a quarter inches
tall, rose at seven o’clock every morning, joined his wife at breakfast to eat
one boiled egg cooked for precisely four minutes, two pieces of toast with one
spoonful of Cooper’s marmalade, and drink one cup of China tea. He would then
take a hackney carriage from his home in 11 Cadogan Gardens at exactly
eight-twenty and arrive at the Foreign Office at promptly eight-fifty-nine,
returning home again on the stroke of six o’clock.

Sir Alexander had been exact from an early
age, as became the only son of a general. But unlike his father, he chose to
serve his Queen in the diplomatic service, another exacting calling. He
progressed from a shared desk at the Foreign Office in Whitehall to third
secretary in Calcutta, to second secretary in Vienna, to first secretary in
Rome, to Deputy Ambassador in Washington, and finally to minister in Peking. He
was delighted when Mr. Gladstone invited him to represent the government in
China as he had for some considerable time taken more than an amateur interest in
the art of the Ming dynasty. This crowning appointment in his distinguished
career would afford him what until then he would have considered impossible, an
opportunity to observe in their natural habitat some of the great statues,
paintings and drawings which he had previously been able to admire only in
books.

When Sir Alexander arrived in Peking, after
a journey by sea and land that took his party nearly two months, he presented
his seals patent to the Empress Tzu-Hsi and a personal letter for her private
reading from Queen Victoria. The Empress, dressed from head to toe in white and
gold, received her new Ambassador in the throne room of the Imperial Palace.
She read the letter from the British monarch while Sir Alexander remained
standing to attention. Her Imperial Highness revealed nothing of its contents
to the new minister, only wishing him a successful term of office in his
appointment. She then moved her lips slightly up at the corners which Sir
Alexander judged correctly to mean that the audience had come to an end. As he
was conducted back through the great halls of the Imperial Palace by a Mandarin
in the long court dress of black and gold, Sir Alexander walked as slowly as
possible, taking in the magnificent collection of ivory and jade statues which
were scattered casually around the building much in the way Cellini and
Michaelangelo today lie stacked against each other in Florence.

As his ministerial appointment was for only
three years, Sir Alexander took no leave, but preferred to use his time to put
the Embassy behind him and travel on horseback into the outlying districts to
learn more about the country and its people. On these trips he was always
accompanied by a Mandarin from the palace staff who acted as interpreter and
guide.

On one such journey, passing through the
muddy streets of a small village with but a few houses called Ha Li Chuan, a
distance of some fifty miles from Peking, Sir Alexander chanced upon an old
craftsman’s working place.

Leaving his servants, the minister
dismounted from his horse and entered the ramshackled wooden workshop to admire
the delicate pieces of ivory and jade that crammed the shelves from floor to
ceiling. Although modern, the pieces were superbly executed by an experienced
craftsman and the minister entered the little hut with the thought of acquiring
a small. memento of his journey. Once in the shop he could hardly move in any
direction for fear of knocking something over. The building had not been
designed for a six-foot-three and a quarter visitor.

Sir Alexander stood still and enthralled,
taking in the fine scented jasmine smell that hung in the air.

An old craftsman bustled forward in a long,
blue coolie robe and flat black hat to greet him; ajet black plaited pigtail
fell down his back. He bowed very low and then looked up at the giant from
England. The minister returned the bow while the Mandarin explained who Sir
Alexander was and his desire to be allowed to look at the work of the
craftsman. The old man was nodding his agreement even before the Mandarin had
come to the end of his request. For over an hour the minister sighed and
chuckled as he studied many of the pieces with admiration and finally returned
to the old man to praise his skill. The craftsman bowed once again, and his shy
smile revealed no teeth but only genuine pleasure at Sir Alexander’s
compliments. Pointing a finger to the back of the shop, he beckoned the two
important visitors to follow him They did so and entered a veritable Aladdin’s
Cave, with row upon row of beautiful miniature emperors and classical figures
The minister could have happily settled down in the orgy of ivory for at least a
week. Sir Alexander and the craftsman chatted away to each other through the
interpreter, and the minister’s love and knowledge of the Ming dynasty was soon
revealed. The little craftsman’s face lit up with this discovery and he turned
to the Mandarin and in a hushed voice made a request. The Mandarin nodded his
agreement and translated.

“I have, Your Excellency, a piece of Ming
myself that you might care to see. A statue that has been in my family for over
seven generations.”