‘A great moment,’ Sweeney said. ‘The hunters home from the hill. Adrenalin pumping through the veins, and the sweet smell of burning flesh in the nostrils.’ Susan laughed. ‘I suppose you are going to say...

‘Well, you know. Propinquity makes strange bed-fellows.’ Toni stretched her arms back, a voluptuous movement. ‘And tropic islands make you sexy. At least, I find it so.’ Katey thought of saying: so does your husband,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

‘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...

Billy put the tray down on the table beside Willeway’s deck-chair. He said: ‘Here you are, sir. Tea and muffins. Dripping with butter.’ They were: the butter had soaked golden into the honeycombed surface and...

Lydia had been watching Tony Marriott: his eyes had not left the curve of Susan’s breast, under the wrap, since she came out. When Sweeney spoke his name, interrogatively, he looked at him abstractedly. ‘How...

Sweeney said: ‘Captain Cranach has sold me the Diana. I shall be running her myself.’ ‘But you can’t,’ Susan said, ‘can you?’ ‘I was at sea,’ Sweeney said, ‘as a younger man. My ticket is still valid.’