The romantic gesture
‘He brings a party of guests from England to Honolulu, buys a boat which he could charter, so that he may sail it himself. That is romance, is it not? And takes it two thousand...
Category: Cloud on Silver
Extracts from Cloud on Silver
A spot of flame
Susan said: ‘Oh, look. The sun’s rising.’ A spot of flame had sprung up between two leaning palms on the headland; it broadened as they watched and the palms stood black against the gold, which...
They’re too late
Sweeney remained silent, concentrated, and the silence spread to the others. They watched Yasha and the four Hawaiians running along the beach, and heard Yasha calling something out, presumably to Billy. He reached the spot...
It may come in useful
What else do we have in the way of tools?’ Yasha produced from his pocket a Swiss Army knife. Candie had seen a similar one: they were equipped with various small tools as well as...
Her acts of independence
Watching the Diana sink had removed the last faint illusion that things would come right: the fire go out, the ship prove, miraculously, sound enough to navigate. Or the radio still workable, to bring a...
Of monkeys and men
Susan found herself near Lydia. She said: ‘It was a white monkey?’ Lydia looked at her, at first aggressively and then relaxing. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It was white.’ ‘An albino, I suppose.’ ‘I didn’t get...
Learning lessons
‘Is that breadfruit?’ Susan asked. ‘Do you eat it just as it is?’ ‘You have to cook it. It isn’t a very difficult job, though. You merely have to wrap it in leaves and put...
Crop mysteries
‘What kind of a colony puts down a coffee patch the same size as the wheat patch?’ ‘A colony of Viennese intellectuals,’ Susan suggested. ‘It may not have been a colony, in the sense in...
Our little microcosm
Marriott said, with exasperation: ‘You must agree that it’s only sensible to slap him down now, and hard.’ ‘I don’t know,’ Sweeney said. ‘But, as you’ve said, we’re going to have to live here, possibly...
‘I’ve met his kind before’
Lydia said: ‘All this talk about Billy. I’ve met his kind before.’ She put her hand out and Susan helped her to her feet. ‘I’ll go and have a chat with him.’ She hobbled out...
