Heather flopped beside Cynthia with a grunt of relief. ‘I think I did stay in too long. Now I feel deliciously weak in the legs.’ ‘You’re certainly a glutton,’ Cynthia said, ‘for physical exercise.’ ‘Yes,...

Albrecht came out of the pavilion and walked down the veranda steps. He smiled at them easily. ‘Good morning! You have all enjoyed your swimming, I hope.’ ‘First class,’ Peter said. ‘Are you going to...

Cynthia asked: ‘Are you sure you don’t want to dance, Albrecht?’ ‘If you wish a partner, I should be honoured. But I have not danced for many years.’ ‘I’ll spare your weary bones,’ she said....

She looked at the profile of his face in the moonlight; at that moment the deeply drawn lines seemed to be smoothed out. It was the face of a young man. She asked impulsively: ‘How...

‘Are you ready to go back?’ she asked. ‘It is strange,’ he said. ‘What is?’ ‘That you are English.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I know little of English women. Before the war I was too young to know...

Heather mounted the ladder, with Peter close behind her. Albrecht held the light on them until they had gone. He said to Cynthia: ‘Now it is our turn.’ ‘Give them time to wriggle through.’ She...

Albrecht went next, and looked up to Cynthia. He said: ‘Come, my dear.’ She felt a shiver of fear as she dropped. Her nerves were jarred by the continuous roar of water. As she reached...

There was a sound from the other side of the cave, and Henry swung round quickly. His headlamp illumined Heather and Peter. Heather was holding Albrecht’s torch; Peter was climbing the wall beside the tunnel...

The light from the headlamp covered the place where the mouth of the tunnel had been. There was none there now. The collapsed wall lay in a heap of shattered rock against which the river...

Henry said sharply: ‘One thing we’re waiting for is to find that torch you have dropped.’ He swung his head from side to side, scanning the cave floor with the light. ‘One match may make...