A lack of signals
They walked about a mile along the beach and sat down facing the sea. She was puzzled over Sweeney, and talked about him at some length. Candie, when she forced him to comment, said: ‘He’s...
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Oranges at his feet
‘Can you smell those oranges?’ ‘Stay here,’ she said. ‘I’ll bring you some.’ The orange trees were further up the valley. The fruit were small, but deep gold, and she picked half a dozen without...
‘I’ve got a gun’
‘All I’m asking you to do,’ Marriott said, ‘is hand the gun over. We’ll see to the rest.’ ‘You don’t know when you’re well off, do you?’ Billy stared at him for a moment and...
In the shade of the avocado tree
Despite the concentrated heat of mid-afternoon, they were very cheerful indeed over the last stretch. They broke into the clearing just behind Sweeney’s hut, and saw Sweeney sitting in the shade of the avocado tree...
A walk down by the beach
They were called to their supper, the food set out on leaves which were roughly circular, a foot or more across, and glossily smooth. The taste of the pork, roasted over an open fire, was...
Poseidon’s herdsman
‘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...
So does your husband
‘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,...
‘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...
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...
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...