Moon of madness

Her Japanese parasol lay along the rail of the veranda, her round bare elbows rested upon it and she cuddled her obstinate little chin in upturned palms. I turned to her with a...

We did not take the lift down to the landing-stage. It was busy with bathers; therefore we descended by the rambling stairway cut out of the rock. At the bend, I paused.

As we drew alongside the German, it became evident that we were objects of much interest to her people. I had a good view of the third-class quarters; she had a deck-load of dag...

A party of us went down to the Casino that night, consisting of Nanette, Nanette’s mother, Ensleigh, and myself. Jack excused himself on the plea that he had promised to play so...

The days wore on in that lotus-eaters’ paradise and I became an audience of one at a comedy designed to end in drama. There was a mystery that intrigued me vastly, and Ensleigh...

Personality is a queer thing. Nobody has quite defined it yet. In my wild quest of a plan to save Nanette from herself, without letting her mother know and without compromising...

Wonderful to relate, we managed to keep secret the story of Nanette’s indiscretion. Her mother never knew that she had left her room. And it was toward dusk of the following day...

I sat up with a start. Morning sunlight flooded the large bare room. Wild canaries were singing outside my window. Slowly, facts began to assert themselves. I had been dreaming...

“This chap Da Cunha,” said the consul, “isn’t Portuguese, in spite of his name. He’s some kind of what-not. He has the biggest radio outfit in the island up at his summer bungal...

I cannot pretend that I was a happy man as I climbed the ladder of the _Arundel Castle_ on the following morning. All my friends were leaving, and the affection and admiration t...

The S.S. _Aguila_ of Messrs. Yeoward Brothers dropped her anchor on to the rocky bottom of Funchal Harbour at fifteen minutes after two A.M. under a perfect moon like the cresce...

The governor’s car, a Cadillac--tribute to the far-flung efficiency of American salesmanship--was driven by the chauffeur over what I took to be the edge of a sheer precipice. I...

He turned toward me, his arm resting on the rail of the balcony. There were times when O’Shea looked extraordinarily handsome. To-day, I thought he appeared almost haggard. In h...

Born leaders of men do not achieve leadership; men force it upon them. Here was a panic-stricken group, soon augmented by the manager and a doctor who chanced to be in the hotel...

I had noted a loose floor board in my room. With the aid of a knife blade, I succeeded in lifting it, revealing a dusty cavity. Here I hid the portfolio. I replaced the board an...

I have come to the conclusion that British honour is pretty good stock-in-trade. Macalister accepted my word that no rescue by force would be attempted. And, if Macalister accep...

“He is the immediate chief of those Communist gentlemen,” he replied, “whose activities have detained me so long in Madeira. One good thing I owe to him. I shall be returning to...

That run home to Southampton did not begin auspiciously for Nanette. Her happiness at being on the same ship with O’Shea was distinctly blunted by the presence of an official ch...

“You have my authority to take any steps you may think fit, Major O’Shea,” said the Captain. “I have received the usual instructions and of course I shall do nothing without con...

O’Shea had been missing quite often. Several times I saw him coming out of the radio cabin, and he had had two long interviews with the commander, at the second of which the pur...

His admiring gaze was set upon a photograph in my portfolio of Madeira snapshots. It represented a slender girl, arms raised, poised in the act of diving from a rock into the cl...

On the following morning Nanette’s mother called. One great disadvantage of this era of freedom is that it has taken all the kick out of life. Without prohibitions there can be...

A curious episode marked our arrival at the gallery. On the opposite side of Bond Street, you may recall that there is a block of offices and showrooms, occupied by beauty speci...

A delicious haze hung over the Serpentine, by which token I knew that a warm day might be expected. Votaries of Peter Pan were few, for the morning was young as yet, but I sat w...

We sat on that bench by the water’s edge where I had met Nanette. O’Shea continued his scrutiny of the message, and, looking over his shoulder, I read it again for perhaps the t...

Nanette was with a party at the Hippodrome that night, and I had promised to look in during the interval. The curtain had just fallen and the orchestra was playing as I entered...

“Two things are rather worrying me,” O’Shea confessed. “It is obvious enough that Zara is afraid to visit any of the known centres of the S Group, hence the appointment at Peter...

I suppose that at some time during his life every man who has anything of the boy left in him has thought that he would like to take a fling at the great adventure of Secret Ser...

The party that presently invaded us proved to consist of Nanette and a brunette girl friend whom I had not seen before. They were escorted by a young medical officer on leave fr...

Just vaulting into a two-seater that had been parked over by the railings was the man whose retreating figure I had seen as I leaned from the window! I prayed that he might be u...

I find that my memory holds no proper record of the hour that elapsed between this time and our return to Nanette. There were certain unavoidable formalities to be gone through;...

I seemed to detect an ominous air of hush as I opened the door for O’Shea and myself to go up to my apartments. Nanette’s mother met us. I could scarcely bear to look at her. Al...