The Blood Pudding Meeting

The Blood Pudding Meeting is the secret encounter between Kelso Drake and Ignacio Narbondo that Theophilus Godall investigates and later reports. It connects Drake’s covert dealings with Narbondo’s experiments on the dead, but does not settle what either man hoped to gain. Godall observes a disturbing gathering and a private exchange; his explanations of its purpose remain explicitly tentative, leaving the meeting as both evidence of an alliance and an unresolved threat.

Discovery and Surveillance

The meeting comes to light after Theophilus Godall argues that Drake must not obtain the engine under investigation. He explains that Drake and Narbondo are in league, or at least that one does business with the other. Godall has taken a room across from the doctor’s cabinet and seen Drake visit Narbondo more than once. His account therefore rests on surveillance, not on participation in their plans.

Godall says he followed the men on the previous afternoon, though not together: Drake would not be seen publicly with Narbondo. Their separate arrivals lead him to a public house in the Borough, tucked behind an old, sprawling innyard. The inn’s gables, attic rooms, and confusing passages make the place difficult to navigate, while the rooms used for the gathering open onto an alley. Godall cannot find a front entrance and suspects that access may run through the old inn, but this remains his inference. The hidden layout helps explain how the two men could meet without making their association conspicuous.

The Public House and Its Patrons

The only clear marker is the name painted over an alley door: The Blood Pudding. Godall finds a dozen or more men inside, mostly sitting without speaking. Only a couple have drinks, and even they seem disengaged from them. One man studies his glass as if trying to recover a familiarity with its contents, while another, after eating, gets up and walks into a wall before finding his direction. Godall takes the men’s appearance and behavior as evidence that something is gravely wrong with them; the gathering does not resemble an ordinary public-house crowd.

Godall later makes his conclusion explicit: the men at The Blood Pudding were dead. This identification changes the significance of the meeting. The room is not merely a concealed place where two suspicious associates can confer; it is also a gathering of bodies connected to Narbondo’s experiments. Godall has separately watched the doctor revive what he believes was a corpse, giving him grounds to connect the unusual patrons to Narbondo’s work, though the account does not establish the history of each man in the room.

Narbondo and Drake Arrive

Narbondo is already there when Drake arrives, roughly a quarter of an hour later. Godall reports that the doctor is engaged in eating live sparrows beneath a floor-length drape. The episode is presented as part of the meeting’s unsettling atmosphere, not as proof of a particular agreement. Drake is taken aback when Narbondo emerges from behind the drape. That reaction marks a clear contrast between the two men: Drake may be willing to deal with the doctor, but he is not shown as entirely prepared for every aspect of Narbondo’s conduct.

The encounter is significant partly because it gives Godall direct evidence that Drake and Narbondo share access to one another despite keeping their association out of public view. Yet Godall does not overhear or establish the terms of their conversation. The meeting confirms contact; it does not confirm a settled bargain, the delivery of a particular resource, or the men’s final intentions.

Experiments and Unresolved Stakes

Other episodes clarify the context around Godall’s suspicions. At Narbondo’s laboratory, the doctor examines carp and removes a small gland for preservation. During a later reanimation experiment, he and Willis Pule bring a fresh corpse to a worktable and place a sluggish carp beside it. These scenes establish that fish and their organs belong to Narbondo’s experimental practice. They help explain why Godall sees the dead patrons as part of the doctor’s operations, but they do not prove that the carp procedure was discussed at The Blood Pudding.

Godall offers two possible explanations for Drake’s interest. Narbondo might supply Drake with workers who would resist union leaders, or Drake might hope to purchase the extraordinary being sought by Sebastian Owlesby and believe Narbondo can provide it. Godall connects the second possibility to the report that a blimp is expected to land and that the hunchback believes the homunculus is aboard. He presents both accounts as conjecture, not as information obtained from the men themselves. The distinction matters: the meeting discloses a channel of cooperation, while its intended object remains unknown.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The meeting gives Theophilus Godall a concrete basis for opposing Drake’s access to the engine and for warning the others about the partnership. Its consequences extend beyond the room because the evidence joins separate strands of the plot: Drake’s pursuit of power, Narbondo’s experiments, and the presence of apparently reanimated dead. Later, Langdon St. Ives encounters a tottering corpse behind a sliding panel, confirming that such bodies become an immediate danger elsewhere in the story. That later encounter is not shown as a direct result of the meeting, but it sharpens the stakes of what Godall witnessed.

The Blood Pudding itself functions as a concealed junction between criminal business and unnatural science. Its obscure entrance, silent patrons, and hidden rooms make secrecy tangible, while the difference between what Godall observes and what he can only infer preserves the mystery of Drake and Narbondo’s alliance. The scene reveals enough to make their partnership alarming, but withholds the crucial answer: whether they intend to command the dead, obtain the homunculus, or pursue some other advantage.