While they ate, he told them something of his routine. He had an alarm clock to wake him at six-thirty. He got up then, bathed, sometimes shaved, and went to the galley to make himself...

‘You’d like I should run you a film maybe?’ ‘It’s a bit late,’ Matthew said. ‘You must be tired. I know I’m pretty tired.’ ‘I always run a film at night, sometimes two.’ He stood...

‘I saw the captain.’ ‘Did you?’ ‘I said good morning, but he didn’t answer me.’ ‘He was probably thinking about something at the time. Throw me that shirt over, will you?’ He washed and dressed,...

‘What’s wrong with the captain, Mr Cotter?’ ‘His mind’s sick.’ ‘Like Mother Lutron?’ ‘Something like that.’ ‘But he didn’t even see us,’ Billy said. ‘He looked at us as though we weren’t there.’ ‘Yes.’ The...

As they came out on deck, Matthew saw that the sky was a pearly grey, with a patch of light golden haze which showed where the sun was. The air was mild and damp and...

The sun came out and scorched through the afternoon. They went on across sand and rock, heading roughly north, and camped for the night on a patch of sand surrounded by an oddly symmetrical circle...

They saw people about an hour after they had started on their way. They were some distance from the road. Their clothes were the usual assortment of bits and pieces, and their general appearance unkempt....

‘These look-outs,’ Matthew said. ‘Against what?’ Lawrence asked: ‘Since you got across – are we the first you’ve met?’ ‘We saw two women, but they ran off before I could talk to them.’ ‘It was...

‘Hasn’t there been any attempt to organize things?’ ‘Organize?’ Lawrence asked. ‘On a long-term basis.’ ‘We found a goose,’ Lawrence said. ‘A live and kicking goose. We clipped her wings and penned her. Who knows...

I dreamt the other night that I had done it and that it was published in the B.M.J. Funny thing, I can remember the papers immediately before and after it, too. One on a new...