V.V. (12) The "hosts" are in the text

[jbor]

Having just emerged from one Siege Party pretty much unscathed I think it's
probably a good idea to adopt a free-form mode as we ride into Foppl's in
this section.

And, indeed, there is quite a plethora of "hosts" through whom our
invitation has been extended and with whom we need to determine what we are
to bring along to the "party" ourselves. Eigenvalue, who provides Stencil
with the opportunity to retell; Stencil of course, who has tracked Mondaugen
down, somewhat by chance it seems, out on Long Island, and has then cornered
him in the Rusty Spoon for the best part of half an hour to hear this tale;
Mondaugen, "a young engineering student" from Munich, fat (or "v-oluptuous")
and fair; and Foppl, a farmowner "in the northern part of the district", all
assume roles in the relay of narrative and significance in this chapter.

Q. Kalkfontein, near where Mondaugen encounters van Wijk in the first
section, is situated at 22' 4" S, 20' 57" E, while Mondaugen's "recovery
station" is "as close to 28' South" as he could conveniently get, but
possibly somewhere near Warmbad (28' 25" S, 18' 42" E). That's a distance of
close enough to 600 km (as the v-ulture flies). If Foppl's farmhouse is
indeed in the "the northern part of the district" as van Wijk says, how come
it's only "several more hours" from Mondaugen's recovery station to Foppl's?
Is Kurt's Cape cart a turbo? Or does "mirror-time in the South-West
Protectorate" mean that north is actually south?

best