Meanwhile, in his suite in the Hotel California Trail, Augustus Ryland opened a bottle of Macallan 18 years old sherry oak single malt scotch and decanted an unreasonable amount into the Victorian etched whiskey glass that arrived with him when 50 years ago he first landed in San Francisco.
Many things came together in 1940 when Augie was an art appraiser for a small museum in London. He remembered how every night the Luftwaffe bombed London. The terrifying noise and destruction.
He remembered how at that time, he had so far avoided the conscription mandated by the UK Parliament National Service (Armed Forces) Act of 1939 -- under which men between 18 and 41 were required to join the Armed Forces -- but everyone in London was now subject to the anxiety disorder which had in the past exempted him.
And, art appraiser was not a reserved occupation.
On the positive side, Augie recalled, savoring the look and taste of the whiskey in his antique glass, was the youthful friendship with smugglers, that began when his father repeatedly sent him to purchase whiskey from secluded caves on the Cornwall coast. With pleasure Augie remembered how friendly smugglers had invited him to join in midnight celebrations.
The poetic juxtaposition -- of how his father's dependance on whiskey contributed to the threat of loss of the family estate, and how by appraising smuggled jewelry and objects of cultural significance, Augie saved the small but historic family seaside Castle -- was inescapable.