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"You're putting us on" Stewart laughed

"Not in the least" The distant expression on Pitt's craggy face had changed to staunch resolve

For a e fro skepticism was totally unexpected "You sound like you're on the lunatic fringe"

Pitt tilted his head back and laughed heartily "That's the best part about being crazy You see things nobody else can see"

St Julien Perlourmand and bon vivant Excessively fond of fine food and drink, he reveled in sociable tastes, possessing an incredible file of recipes from the renowned chefs of the world and a cellar with e wine A host with an adant restaurants, he paid a heavy price St Julien Perlra at physical workouts and diet foods, his fondest as to enter the great beyond while savoring a 100-year-old brandy after a sumptuous meal

Besides eating, his other burning passion was ships and shipwrecks He had accued by archival experts as the world's most complete collection of literature and records on historic ships Maritience did him in, so they could pounce like vultures and absorb the collection into their own libraries

There was a reason Perlmutter always entertained in restaurants instead of at his spacious carriage house in Georgetown outside the nation's capital A giganticshelves, and in every nook and cranny of his bedroo rooh beside the com-size waterbed Archival experts would have required a full year to sort out and catalogue the thousands of books stuffed in the carriage house But not Perlmutter He knew precisely where any particular volume was stashed and could pick it out within seconds

He was dressed in his standard uniforold paisley robe, standing in front of aalike a ship's bell

"St Julien Perlmutter here State your business in a brief manner"

"Hello, you old derelict"

"Dirk!" he boo from a round crimson face "Where's that recipe for apricot sautéed prawns you promised me?"

"In an envelope on ot to ies"

"Where are you calling from?"

"A ship off the coast of Peru"

"I' down there"