How to use "were" in a sentence

As I walk, I think about the history of the people who were here before me

That was a clear message to stay away! But you were in such a hurry to finish the hike you didn't stop and check.

Back in Aspen, Aron's housemates were preparing for the party

What about the Robbers Roost canyons in the south? The only roads down there were made of rocks and sand

Half an hour later, they were on their way

Things were now moving fast.

Most were for the pain and to fight the poison in my blood

I couldn't sleep and my thoughts were unclear

The following weeks were difficult for my family

Some friends, including Kristi Moore, were with me

The largest whale was only 180 feet long and if these men were right, this was even larger

Five hundred thousand people were there to say goodbye

It was night-time and we were 200 miles on the coast of Japan when suddenly Ned Land, the harpooner, cried out.

We hoped dial in the morning someone from the ship could see us if we were still alive.

We were tired

We knocked on the ship's sides, but they were too thick and no one heard us.

Behind them, there were large glass windows looking out onto the sea

The Captain and his crew were excellent hosts

They gave us wonderful sea food and we were free to visit any place we liked on the ship.

We were very close to Papua

There were only cannibals on Papua

Captain Nemo gave us gnus, and we were all excited to return to land and feel free again.

"I thought they were the cannibals."

We were so excited by this new adventure that we forgot where we were walking

We were far from the beach

There were cannibals everywhere

But now that we were in the Indian Ocean, there was nowhere to escape to.

He looked very sad and there were tears in his eyes.

They were going to bury the dead man.

One day Conseil, Ned Land, and I were in the museum room

We were looking through the underwater windows at the beautiful fish

We were prisoners, but it was exciting to see all of the mysteries under the sea.

We were prisoners

He would feel the same way if he were in Ned Land's position.

We were a long way under the sea

When Conseil and Ned woke up, I told them that we were in the Mediterranean Sea.

There were stone houses and ancient temples on it

Conseil, Ned and I were in the museum, looking out at old stone walls, 5,000 feet under the sea.

We were in the North Sea, near the coast of Norway

Those were Captain Nemo's last words.

The waters off the coast of Norway were famous for this

There were no pictures or conversations in it.

There were cupboards in the walls of the rabbit-hole

Some of the cupboards were open, and there were books in them

They were in a different rabbit-hole now.

There were four doors in the room, but Alice couldn't open them

Because she was very big, her tears were very big too.

But this time her tears were small tears - she was small again!

There were a lot of animals and birds in the water

But the chocolates were too big for the small birds, and they had to eat them very slowly

Above the door were the words 'W

Now there were two little cries

There were some mushrooms near her

Some were white and some were brown.

These were the words of the song:

But there were only three at the table: the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and a large brown mouse

There were a lot of teacups on the table.

There were three gardeners by the tree.

There were ten of them, and they had red diamonds on their clothes

After them there were a lot more people

Most of them were Kings and Queens

Last of all were the King and Queen of Hearts.

They were on the ground and she couldn't see their faces

'They were white, and - and-'

After a short time, there were a lot of people round the Cat

The King and Queen were there

All the cards were there too

The March Hare and the Mouse were quite near him and he looked at them for ideas

Then they put me into another kind of school, and there were some strange boys there

People were really kind to me after that!

I tried to put my hands in front of her, because there were people looking at us

Most of the doors and windows were broken, and the floor was dirty

'You were wonderful!'

There were a lot of people there, and Jenny was wearing a long dress and singing

Three or four other people were in the group with her, and they made a good sound

When they were winning 28 to 7, Coach Bryant called me across

Weasel made a bad mistake - and then the game finished, and we were the losers.

After I left the idiot school, people were always shouting at me - Coach Fellers, Coach Bryant, and then the people in the army

But the pots were only small.

It blew the food all over us - me, and all the men who were sitting at the tables.

The 'showers' were just a long hole in the ground for us to stand in, while somebody threw water over us

We were standing in it, when suddenly there was a strange noise.

'She left school and went off with a group of people who were against the war,' he said.

We were on one hill and the enemy was on the other

The shooting was in front of us, which meant that the enemy soldiers were in between us and our men

We began to move back to the hill, but Doyle suddenly saw more enemy soldiers who were going towards our men! We waited until they got to the top, then Bones began shooting with the machine gun

Two of them were dead, and Doyle was only just alive.

There were bullets flying all round me from behind - and then I saw more enemy soldiers in the low grass in front of me! They were shooting at our men on the hill.

We were crossing a rice field when suddenly they started shooting at us

Nobody could get any help to us, and the enemy soldiers were so near that we could hear them talking

Then, when it got light, an American plane came and used fire-throwers on the enemy - and almost on us! Suddenly the trees were on fire, and men were running out of the jungle with burned skin and clothes.

Then our helicopters came, and the enemy soldiers who were left ran away.

Then one day I got back to the hospital and a Colonel Gooch said, 'Gump, we're going back to America together! You're going to see the President of the United States, and he's going to give you a medal because you were very brave.'

There were about two thousand people waiting for us at San Francisco airport when we got off the plane! What a surprise! A lot of them had beards and long hair

I thought perhaps they were there to welcome us, but I was wrong

They were shouting unpleasant things, and then somebody threw a tomato at Colonel Gooch and it hit him in the face

A lot of army people were there, and they immediately started shaking my hand and telling me that I was a brave man and that they were pleased to meet me.

The President was a great big old man who talked like somebody from Texas, and there were a lot of people standing round him in the flower garden.

The President asked me a lot of questions about Vietnam and the army, but I just said, 'Yes, it's OK' or shook my head to say no, and after several minutes of this we were both silent.

Later, when we were back in the garden, the President said, 'You were hurt, weren't you, boy? Well, look at this...' And he pulled up his shirt and showed me the place on his stomach where he was hurt once

'Where were you hurt?' he asked me.

Then they began to play - and they were loud

There were a lot of people waiting to go in, so I went round to the back of the place and sat on the ground

But the people that I was with were strange

But the next minute we were kissing and making love! And when we finished, Jenny said, 'Forrest, where have you been all this time?'

Police were everywhere, and people were shouting and throwing things.

And the police were taking some of them away.

The others were talking about something that would happen the next day

Instead of coming down in the sea when we returned, the space ship came down in the jungle somewhere, and it was four years before the NASA people found us! But the ape and I were soon good friends

A minute later, I had my arms round her and we were both crying

People were watching us with strange looks on their faces, but it didn't matter

Jenny and me were together again.

I was going past a hotel when I looked in the window and saw some people who were playing chess

Two days later we were on our way to Los Angeles, to a big chess tournament.

We were a day or two early for the tournament, and Mr Tribble took me to see some people who were making a film

We were watching a man who was crashing through a window in a film fight, when a man walked over to us

Finally the day came when Sue and I were ready to go shrimping

By the end of the next week, we were getting ten dollars a day

'Mom wrote and told me about your shrimp business, and how rich you were.'

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written Constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution - certainly would if such a right were a vital one

If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action

all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war

insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war - seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it

Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for

I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis - broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

I decided what kind of people they were before they said a word to me

There were two doors at the top of the stairs

The room was dirty and there were empty bottles everywhere

We know what you were planning

You never knew that I came into your room at night when you were asleep

'I knew that you were poisoning Miss Niner

Many of them were poor and homeless

As always, the pubs were crowded and noisy

The streets were dark, gloomy and dangerous.

The manager, Walter Purkiss, and his wife were in their bedroom on the second floor

These were all the possessions she had

Two lower front teeth were missing

Her clothes were all old and dirty: a long black jacket down to her knees, petticoats, stockings, a black skirt, and boots

Two people were important witnesses in the murder case

In Berner Street, almost opposite a school, were two big wooden gates which opened into Dutfield's Yard, a dark, narrow court between numbers 42 and 40

Just over half an hour before, Russian and Polish Jews were having a discussion in the club

Two front teeth were missing at the top

Her stockings were white, her bonnet black, and she was wearing boots

Her clothes were old and dirty

The couple were talking quietly, and the woman had her hand on the man's chest

There were also three plain-clothes detectives on the streets that night

They were part of the police hunt for the Whitechapel killer

At the time of the murder they were only a few streets away from Mitre Square

Immediately after the discovery of the murder the streets were full of policemen

The police were already everywhere in the area after Liz Stride's murder

Mary and Barnett decided to live together, and by the beginning of 1888 they were renting a room, 13 Miller's Court in Dorset Street.

Mrs Cox followed them into the court and said, 'Goodnight, Mary Jane' as they were going into Mary's room

Mrs Lewis did nothing because cries like this were usual in Whitechapel

He walked to his right round the corner, where there were two windows of number 13

At 1.30 when the news came that the dogs were not coming, he told McCarthy to break open the door

In the fireplace were the ashes of a large fire

There were lots of suspects at the time, but the police did not have any real evidence against them

His gloomy paintings of murder scenes were part of his vision as an artist: he liked to paint the dark, squalid side of life

After the murders in Berner Street and Mitre Square the streets were too dangerous for the Ripper, which explains why he did not kill in October

In Victorian times the East End was also violent, but the Ripper murders were something new

The Ripper murders were the first of a new kind of crime: serial killings, savage, without an obvious motive, no clues, and very difficult to solve.

There were stories of a mysterious man known as 'Leather Apron', who demanded money from prostitutes and beat them if they resisted

On September 8th thousands of frightened people were out in the streets

The anger of the crowd also turned against Jews, who were threatened and abused

Liz Stride and Kate Eddowes were murdered near Jewish clubs, and the police were very nervous about the possibility of anti-Jewish disturbances

But in Whitechapel the pubs were empty, and there were only policemen and vagabonds in the dark streets

Although the details of Annie Chapman's murder were given on September 19th, they were not reported for reasons of decency

But on October 3rd shopkeepers complained that they were losing a lot of business because people were afraid to go out shopping.

During the following weeks sales of newspapers, and verses and songs about the murders were enormous

Thousands of letters offering information and help were sent to Scotland Yard

Lodgers, butchers, and slaughterers were questioned

The innkeeper, who was also the cook, was busy with his pots and pans, preparing a meal for a group of travellers who were laughing and joking in the next room.

His doors were never locked, so that anybody who needed his help could find him easily.

Later that morning, as the bishop and his sister were having breakfast, there was a knock on the door

Three of them were policemen; the fourth was Jean Valjean.

He stared at the coin with a look of puzzlement, as if he were trying to remember something

On a spring evening in 1818, in the village of Montfermeil, not far from Paris, two little girls were playing on a swing outside a small inn

Her clothes were old and dirty, and she wore a tight, plain cap over her beautiful blonde hair.

The child's eyes were as wide and blue as her mother's

The dog and the cat, who ate with her, were her only companions.

The Thenardiers, who were loving and gentle to their own daughters, Eponine and Azelma, treated Cosette like a slave.

The Thenardiers, however, were very angry - they had wanted money, not clothes

Madeleine, but I believed you were a man called Jean Valjean

When you arrived in Montreuil, I felt sure that you were this man, but now I know I was wrong, and I'm sorry

As they were approaching the inn, Cosette turned to him and said, 'May I have the bucket now? If Mme Thenardier sees that someone has been helping me, she'll beat me.'

They were two healthy girls, the old man noticed, dressed in warm clothes and with pink, healthy cheeks

After a while, he felt confident that he and Cosette were not being followed

The four men were still following him

Seven or eight soldiers were moving slowly along the lane in his direction.

Valjean hugged Cosette tightly with relief, knowing that at last they were both safe.

When girls looked at him and smiled, he thought they were laughing at his old clothes

In fact, they were attracted by his good looks, but he was not confident enough to realize this

He walked around slowly, stopping to look at the ducks on the lake, then casually approached the bench where Mile Lanoire and her father were sitting

He returned the next morning and sat on a bench all day, pretending to read a book, not daring to go near the bench where the girl and her father were sitting

Leblanc and his daughter had risen from their bench and were slowly walking in his direction

When he felt that they were near him, he looked up and saw that the girl was looking steadily at him with a soft, thoughtful gaze that made him tremble from head to foot.

Once again, there were no lights in the windows

From what they were shouting at each other, he understood that they were running from the police

Marius read the four letters and discovered that they were all asking for money

However, there was something strange about them: although they all seemed to be written by different people, they were written on the same rough paper in the same handwriting

But now he understood that Jondrette's business was writing dishonest letters, asking for money from people he imagined were wealthier than himself.

She clapped her hands and cried, 'We've been looking for that everywhere! How did you know they were mine? Of course, the handwriting

You were the man we ran into last night.'

'You aren't rich, but you were generous this morning

'Do you remember the little inn in Montfermeil eight years ago? You took away our Cosette, do you remember? Wearing that old yellow coat, pretending you were a tramp! Well, now you're going to learn that you can't make things right by just bringing a few hospital blankets! You're the cause of all my troubles

One afternoon he was sitting in a field, looking down at a small river, when his dreams of 'Ursula' were suddenly broken by the sound of a familiar voice

The moonlit garden and the street beyond it were completely empty

His dark clothes were almost invisible in the shadows, and his face shone softly in the fading light

Then, as if by magic, her lips were next to his and they were kissing

Beneath the stars, they were happy just to look into each others eyes and hold each other's hands

'Have you come to apologize? Do you now see that you were wrong?'

People were running around, and there was a lot of noise, but Marius paid little attention

Looking up, he saw that there were no lights on in the house and that all the windows were closed

In the spring of 1832, the people of Paris were ready for revolution

Neither could he understand the concept of freedom of speech, and he often sent soldiers into the streets to attack people who were making public protests.

Then there were two gunshots

There were several street children, excited by the sound of battle, who also joined them

Having run to tell Marius that his friends were waiting for him, she was helping Enjolras and his companions to build the barricade

The barricades were finished in less than an hour and, with the sound of drums in the city growing louder, Enjolras brought a table out into the street and sat down with his friends for a drink.

When he reached the stronghold, soldiers were already climbing the barricade, shooting at the rebels

Soldiers now occupied the top of the barricade, but were unable to advance any further because the defenders fought so fiercely

When the smoke cleared, there were many dead bodies on both sides

The survivors were reloading their guns in silence, when suddenly a loud voice called, 'Get out now, or I'll blow up the barricade!'

Within seconds, the soldiers had left the barricade, leaving their dead and wounded behind, and were running into the darkness at the far end of the street.

As he was walking by the smaller barricade, his thoughts were interrupted by a weak voice calling his name from the shadows.

The ground floor of the wine shop became a hospital for the wounded, and the bodies of the dead were taken to an alley near the smaller of the two barricades

Four of the dead people were National Guards, and their uniforms were removed.

After a long discussion with his friends, Enjolras decided that the married men (there were five of them) had to leave.

The barricade was stronger than it had been for the first assault, and the rebels were at their positions, guns loaded and ready for action

They were filled with hope that help would come soon, but the hope did not last long

Within half an hour the sound of gunfire in other places had stopped, and the rebels knew that they were alone

As other guns began firing at the smaller barricade, the rebels fought back bravely, but they were running out of bullets

There were only twenty-six men left, and the main attack on the barricade was going to take place very soon

They stood with their backs to the door, shooting up at the soldiers who were climbing down towards them from the barricade

One by one the remaining rebels escaped into the wine shop, until only Enjolras and Marius were left outside

Enjolras and the few surviving rebels fought bravely, but the soldiers were too strong

Soon, all the rebels were dead, including Enjolras, who was the last to die

But the gate was solid and the bars were firm.

I knew you were angry with me, and I thought, "What can I do to make him love me?" Then I thought, "I can give him Cosette." I wanted to invite her to see you, but the doctor warned me that you would probably get too excited

When they were alone together, Cosette and Marius kissed.

But there were more important things for Marius to think about

Apart from preparing for his wedding, there were two people that he wanted to find

Oh, I wish Cosette's money were mine.'

There were flowers everywhere when they returned to M

One evening he discovered there were no chairs in the room at all - he and Cosette had to stand in the cold for their whole meeting

'Shall I tell you the secret that you were planning to sell me? I, too, have sources of information, and probably know more about the subject than you do

'I have all the proof here,' Thenardier said, producing an envelope in which there were several documents and newspaper articles

Minutes later, he and Cosette were travelling in a carriage to Number 7, rue de l'Homme-Arme.

'Why didn't you tell me that you were M

The words she said were 'I will kill him,' but the defendant says she does not remember that

He remembers that afterwards they were in the hotel room kissing, but then something happened, and she laughed

One moment they were running; the next there was the sound of the gun and a scream

Their cabin by the lake was cold and empty, and there were no jobs for him anywhere.

The sound of the sirens was still in the distance, and Brandon thought that maybe they were still okay and that maybe they could leave; maybe they could escape together

The falls: so beautiful, just like when he and Greg were kids

"There were two people watching us, Sir."

And then they were all on top of him

"These were your granddad's guns," he said to him in the kitchen

Did you really not think that we were watching you? We knew you were cheating

We knew you were using your little tricks

"The aces were in the pack."

They were all shouting angrily, "Work! We want work!"

that's so sweet of you!" Taste-pots were great, because they weren't expensive, but gave you the taste of something luxurious like double chocolate ice cream

There were hundreds of tastes to choose from.

All they could hear were the sounds of the waves and the gentle wind in the trees

"Yes." Sala loved painting, but the paints were expensive, so it was something she couldn't do very often.

In a simulator, it was hard to forget that there were four walls just five or six steps away - but in a pod, you lost your awareness of the world around you

They were expensive

"And they actually pay you?" Niki's eyes were wide.

Most of them had at least forty floors above ground - these were called "sky apartments." Below ground, there were often another ten floors, for "earth apartments." The government had started building under the ground long ago, because the land inside the city was so limited.

Gran's lips were trembling

What's more, there was a force field at the city boundary that was impossible to cross: there were alarms there that sensed your wrist chip before you even got close, and then government agents appeared in seconds to arrest you

Story-streams were a little like the movies that people watched in the past

But afterward, you were still in the city in a tiny room, surrounded by thousands of other people doing exactly the same thing

"I had enough money for one, and you just had to say you were interested in Pod Life

"And you said you were interested, to get this special offer?"

When we were with the others."

Then they were in, and heading to their favorite machines

"What were you watching?" asked Sala.

"So you were thinking about it!" she cried

"You were thinking about it the whole time!"

It meant that she earned a regular salary, unlike Cham's parents, who were always worrying about money

That was how Sala and her family were able to live in their rooftop apartment.

Some of them were really beautiful, but you couldn't really explore them because you were still in a little room with a time limit

The skies were heavy and gray as stone; Sala heard a clap of thunder

Cham's parents had furnished it nicely, and there were plenty of lights to make it bright

This was the only world they were ever likely to experience

She would never want to prevent that - there were so few opportunities to succeed

"If we were both in a pod, how would we be together?"

So at least if we were both doing the same thing, it would almost feel like we were together."

It was Monday, and the two friends were riding the walkway home from college

More free than you were before."

You were excited and you couldn't concentrate on anything else, but you were also a tiny bit afraid

Now that they were actually on their way, it was all so much fun.

Inside, the lights were so bright they were almost blinding, and there was a constant soft noise of people working on computers

There, below the surface, were hundreds of multicolored fish

While Sala and Cham were watching the fish, the dolphins carried on making a huge variety of sounds - whistles and clicks and strange, wild calls

She tried to move her arms, but they were trapped

And we were in the same virtual space together

"And then the dolphins were making all that noise, and we laughed about them talking to us -"

"We were communicating through our avatars," said Cham "It's so clever."

A bit too clever, said a voice in Sala's head: they'd been together, and yet not together; they were able to talk to each other, but sometimes experienced things separately

They were almost home when Cham turned to her.

When Sala arrived home, Mom was back from work, and Apat and Gran were there, too

"Niki and I passed the laboratory the other day - there were loads of people looking for work."

Gran said nothing more, but her eyes were shining

It was pouring with rain again, and his hair and clothes were wet when he arrived.

It was Monday, and Sala and Niki were at college again

"But maybe I'd feel differently if I were in love."

Other people joined in, and the packets were soon gathered together again

We have a very nice house near the ocean and there are wild roses in the garden, just as there were when we were young

They were so close to the pod center that she was worried there might be government agents nearby

Here they were, almost at the doors of the pod center

Cham's parents Dani and Tian were waiting for them just inside

The voices of the people in the hologram were strange and slow, like voices in a dream

They met with friends, especially Palo and Ding, who were entering the pods as well

Was this a trap? Where were they going? But the woman didn't look back; she wasn't going to wait

Here, the tower blocks seemed taller and more depressing than ever, built closely together so that the spaces between them were always in shadow

There were just two chairs, a simple metal table, and a very old sofa

"Well, he can't leave the pod for two years, can he?" Wena's eyes were calm, but hard, too

where were you? Come on, I booked a space -"

Perhaps there were bugs in the simulator center

"Where were you?"

But none of Cham's grandparents were alive, so maybe it wasn't surprising that he found it hard to believe in another world.

There were tears in her eyes

The girls were delighted, but inside, Sala felt like crying

The first few days without Cham were horrible

"So, you were right." Wena sounded disappointed, and Sala risked a quick look at her

His eyes were harder, and his smile seemed false

If I were stronger, I'd get out and join that rebellion."

People were coming and going from the main entrance, like last time, but the narrow passageway down the side looked dark and empty

After an hour, her legs were aching from standing still

There were no lights on

He didn't ask her many questions; and although his avatar was looking at her, his eyes were glassy and unseeing.

Other people were already there, sitting around circular tables.

There were hugs and goodbyes

Then, at last, they were alone.

During the Oil Wars, they had to train us how to keep our minds strong, in case we were caught by people who wanted to change the way we thought."

It was clear to them now: the pods were just another way of controlling everyone

We were given exercises to practice, so that if we were caught, we could stay strong." She looked at Sala's face.

Her knees were trembling, but along with Cham's family, she followed Zee through the glass doors.

And the way they were smiling, none of the other parents seemed to suspect that anything was wrong.

She loved to meet people who were rich and famous

Here, Mrs Van Hopper found out which well-known people were staying in the town

'What a strange man Max de Winter is,' said Mrs Van Hopper when we were standing in the lift

By the way, dear, you were rather rude to him

Some of Mrs Van Hopper's friends were coming to tea

They were fat, rude women like herself

There were a few words in an unknown handwriting.

'You were not rude,' I said

'At least, she did not think you were

De Winter looked at me as though I were a stranger

Then we were back in Monte Carlo

The sandwiches were dry, but I ate them without thinking

'You would not be in this car now if you were like that,' he said.

Mrs Van Hopper and I were ready to leave Monte Carlo

All the trunks and bags were packed

All the drawers and cupboards were empty.

In the morning, my eyes were red and swollen.

On the left, were two high iron gates and beside them a small lodge

The gates were wide open for us

People were looking out of the windows of the lodge

They were looking at me

We were going along the drive now that led up to the house

We were not far from the house now

Beyond the lawns were gardens and beyond the gardens, the sea.

We were alone at last.

Its walls were covered with books from the floor to the ceiling

The teapot and kettle were of silver and the china was very fine

There were sandwiches, bread and butter and several kinds of cake

My thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door

When the late Mrs de Winter was alive, there were lots of parties and visitors, of course

The curtains were drawn and more logs put on the fire

They were the same flowers we had seen in the drive

They were earlier than I expected

I was glad that my rooms were in the east wing

We were all very worried about him last year

'Maxim said in his letter that you were very young and pretty

The green shoots of flowers were beginning to show through

There were two paths, going in opposite directions

There were no dark trees in this valley, no thick bushes

The flowers were pink, white and gold

They were things of beauty and grace

We were standing in a little narrow bay

The room was furnished and there were books on the shelves.

'I didn't say anything, did I?' The man's eyes were full of fear

The path was steep and the trees were thick, and dark

His eyes were full of pain and fear.

There were some letters in the corner - a tall "R" and "de W." It was Rebecca's

I was glad that our rooms were in the east wing

There were so many questions I wanted to ask Maxim

But the books were far too heavy

'Darling,' I said to Maxim when we were alone, 'I meant to tell you before, but I forgot

'Anyone would think you were afraid of Mrs Danvers.'

His whole body was shaking with fear and tears were rolling down his fat, round face.

He was a big, handsome man, but his face was red and his eyes were a hard blue

Had Favell known Rebecca? What had he been doing in the west wing? There were some very valuable things in the house

There were flowers on the dressing table and on the table beside the bed

There were so many rooms that Maxim and I never used

Frank Crawley had come to lunch and the three of us were hoping to have a quiet afternoon

But as we were walking out to the big tree on the lawn, we heard a car in the drive

Our visitors were talking happily now about their costumes for the Ball

Coloured lights were hung in the trees outside

There were flowers everywhere

Hundreds of them were brought in from the garden and Mrs Danvers knew exactly how to arrange them

His eyes were on fire with anger.

My eyes were full of tears

The guests were coming out of dinner

His eyes were cold and hard, not the eyes of the man I knew and loved

The fireworks were over

The rooms were empty

The rooms were clean and tidy

She turned to me and I saw that her eyes were red with crying

There were dark shadows on her white face.

We were all right until you came.'

He was happy when we were in Italy together.'

My head ached and my hands were wet

There were some small boats near her.

'I knew you were thinking about Rebecca all the time

'I found out the truth five days after we were married

We were in the hills near Monte Carlo

Maxim and I were going to fight this together

In a strange way, we were completely happy.

There were a lot of letters thanking us for the Ball

The windows were tightly closed and some of the flowers were dead

Frith and Robert were in the room and no one wanted to talk about the boat

There were clouds, but the rain did not fall.

And those holes were mad with something sharp.'

'There were three of them, in different parts of the boat

People were standing up and talking loudly

'You have told us that the door and windows of the cabin were shut?'

We were in his car now and he was driving very fast.

Then we were back at Manderley.

What were they all saying now? What was happening? What would I do if Frank came back to Manderley without Maxim? I thought again of that dreadful word - murder

I tried to stand up but my legs were so weak that I had to lean against a chair

His eyes were red

"I tried to phone you," Favell read, "but you were out

We were taken by surprise when Frith brought the magistrate into the library.

'You were there, weren't you?' said Favell, standing over Ben

She thought men were fools

Maxim and I were alone at last.

The trees were covered in mist.

We were going in Maxim's car

Then we were round the bend of the drive and I could see the house no longer.

It was warm and the streets were busy

'Do you think Colonel Julyan knows the truth about Rebecca's death?' I asked Maxim as we were drinking our coffee.

The dark trees were all round me

The sky was dark now and there were no stars.

They were the ashes of Manderley.

And if that were the case, then he might have ended up in a foster home, in a new life

As they stared at each other through two windows and through the strange sulphurous light, she had the feeling that they were making contact across an immense gulf of space and time and destiny

Pulling her gaze away from his, she studied her hands, which were gripping the steering wheel so fiercely that they ached.

Time should have put even more distance between her and the anguish, but instead the passing days were bringing her around full circle in her grief

At times like this, she wished that she and Michael were still together

Of course, if she and Michael were in bed right this minute, it wouldn't be like that at all

They began as lovers, sharing every detail of their daily lives - triumphs and failures, joys and frustrations - but by the time the divorce was final, they were strangers

The Lido was one of those incredibly lavish productions that could be seen nowhere in the world but Vegas, for it was only in Las Vegas that a multimillion-dollar show could be staged year after year with little concern for profit; such vast sums were spent on the elaborate sets and costumes, and on the enormous cast and crew, that the hotel was usually happy if the production merely broke even from ticket and drink sales

At first, it had seemed terribly wrong that such a wonderful opportunity should come her way before she'd even had time to mourn her boy, as if the Fates were so shallow and insensitive as to think that they could balance the scales and offset Danny's death merely by presenting her with a chance at her dream job

The new show was titled Magyck! Because the variety acts between the big dance numbers were all magicians and because the production numbers themselves featured, elaborate special effects and were built around supernatural themes

Then the new dreams began, and they were far worse than the dream that she'd had immediately after Danny had been killed.

Her obsessive fear of intruders in the house, her disquieting dreams about Danny, her renewed grief - all of those things might grow from her concern about Magyck! If that were the case, then those symptoms would disappear as soon as the fate of the show was evident

At ten o'clock in the morning, she was scheduled to meet with two tour-booking agents who were considering reserving eight thousand tickets to Magyck! During the first three months of its run

At the time, Tina was certain that Danny was aware of the nightly arguments she and Michael were having in their own bedroom, which was next to his, and that he wanted to move into the den so he wouldn't be able to hear them bickering

She and Michael hadn't yet begun to raise their voices to each other; their disagreements had been conducted in normal tones, sometimes even in whispers, yet Danny probably had heard enough to know they were having problems.

Six months later she and Michael separated, and less than five months after the separation, they were divorced.

The bed was properly made, and several science-fiction-movie action figures were posed on the deep headboard

More than a hundred paperbacks were ranked alphabetically on a five-shelf bookcase

The walls were decorated with evenly spaced posters - three baseball stars, five hideous monsters from horror movies - that Danny had carefully arranged.

Gazing at the dead boy's toys and pathetic treasures, Tina realized, not for the first time, that it wasn't healthy for her to maintain this place as if it were a museum

If she was ever to stop dreaming about the boy, if she were to get control of her grief, she must begin her recovery here, in this room, by conquering her irrational need to preserve his possessions in situ.

When she picked up the scattered sticks of chalk and the felt eraser, turning again to the chalkboard, she realized that two words were crudely printed on the black surface:

She refused to consider any other possibility because the alternatives were too frightening.

Her hands were icy; they chilled her sides even through her nightgown.

She finished it quickly, as though she were a child taking medicine, and then put the bottle away.

On the wider levels, long dinner tables, covered with white linen, were set at right angles to the stage

With seven massive production numbers, five major variety acts, forty-two girl dancers, forty-two boy dancers, fifteen showgirls, two boy singers, two girl singers (one temperamental), forty-seven crewmen and technicians, a twenty-piece orchestra, one elephant, one lion, two black panthers, six golden retrievers, and twelve white doves, the logistics were mind-numbingly complicated, but a year of arduous labor was evident in the slick and faultless unfolding of the program.

The words "Joel Bandiri Presents" on a marquee were a guarantee of first-rate entertainment

Ramparts of pale pink stone stretched hundreds of feet on both sides of the entrance; those walls were windowless and garishly decorated with giant stone coins, a gushing torrent of coins flooding from a stone cornucopia

Directly overhead, the ceiling of the immense porte cochere was lined with hundreds of lights; none of the bulbs were burning now, but after nightfall, they would rain dazzling, golden luminosity upon the glossy cobblestones below

Shortly before noon, two high rollers from Dallas sat down at a blackjack table and, in three hours, lost a quarter of a million bucks; they were laughing and joking when they left the table to try another game

Along the entire Strip and in the less posh but nonetheless jammed casinos downtown, things were jumping, sparking.

Two words were printed on the slate:

Dozens of beautiful dancers and showgirls were backstage too

Others wore velvet and rhinestones - or feathers or sequins or furs, and a few were topless

Many were still in the communal dressing rooms, while other girls, already costumed, waited in the halls or at the edge of the big stage, talking about children and husbands and boyfriends and recipes, as if they were secretaries on a coffee break and not some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Mainway carried and held himself as if he were an aristocrat, and his mane of silver hair and his clear blue eyes contributed to the image he wished to project

However, his features were large, square, and utterly without evidence of patrician blood, and even after the mellowing influences of elocution teachers, his naturally low, gravelly voice belied his origins in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood.

His dark eyes were deeply set, quick, marked by intelligence and amusement.

They made pleasant small talk for the next fifteen minutes, and none of it had to do with Magyck! Tina was aware that they were trying to take her mind off the show, and she appreciated their effort.

This afternoon, however, she'd been playing a pair of lucky slot machines at the Mirage Hotel, and she hadn't wanted to walk away from them while they were paying off so generously

But Tina Evans was sympathetic; she knew how important the slot machines were to Vivienne, and she wasn't upset if Vivienne occasionally had to reschedule her visit.

That was the term by which casino employees still referred to local, elderly women whose social lives revolved around an obsessive interest in one-armed bandits, even though the nickel machines were pretty much ancient history

With that attitude plus a few money-management skills, they were able to hang on longer than most slot players who plunged at the dollar machines after getting nowhere with quarters, and because of their patience and perseverance, the duchesses won more jackpots than did the tide of tourists that ebbed and flowed around them

The duchesses, who for the most part were widows and spinsters, often ate lunch and dinner together

She loved them as much as life itself, and she knew they truly wanted her with them; they were not inviting her out of a misguided sense of guilt and obligation

She was about to head for the den when she noticed something odd about four framed eight-by-ten photographs that were grouped on the wall above the sofa

But the fact that two were missing wasn't what drew Vivienne's attention

All four of the remaining photos were swinging back and forth on the picture hooks that held them

It was a portrait of Danny Evans, as were the other five that usually hung around it

The Nevada Nuclear Test Site, where underground detonations were conducted several times a year, was less than a hundred miles north of Las Vegas

Puzzled, frowning thoughtfully, Vivienne put down the knife, pulled one end of the sofa away from the wall, and collected the framed eight-by-tens that were on the floor behind it

There were five photographs in addition to the one that had dropped onto the sofa; two were responsible for the noises that had drawn her into the living room, and the other three were those that she had seen popping off the picture hooks

The nearby windows and the thick glass top of the coffee table were vibrating

By the time she reached the closed door, her skin was goose-pimpled, and her teeth were chattering.

When the stage lights were periodically dimmed, a score of revolving crystal ballroom chandeliers cast swirling splinters of color that seemed to coalesce into supernatural forms that capered under the proscenium arch

Her shoulder-length hair - deep brown, almost black, glossy - swept across her brow, feathered back at the sides, and framed her face as though it were a painting by a great master

She would have been lovely enough if her eyes had been dark, in harmony with the shade of her hair and skin, but they were crystalline blue

If the gigantic sets and lavish costumes and intricate choreography were overdone, or if any element was improperly executed, the production would quickly stumble across the thin line between captivating show-biz flash and sheer vulgarity

Three intricate model airplanes were suspended from the ceiling

These things were as they always had been, since she had first come to work here, before Danny had died.

The CD player and an accompanying AM-FM tuner and amplifier were stacked on one of the nightstands.

After a moment the other two models ceased their erratic dancing and began to spin around and around, like the first plane, as if they were actually flying, and there was no mistaking this deliberate movement for the random effects of a draft.

There were no such things

The springs began to sing as if metal fingers were strumming them.

Everyone in show business knew that non-paying preview crowds were among the toughest to please

At the insistence of the happy, boisterous, VIP audience, both Joel Bandiri and Tina were spotlighted in their booths and were rewarded with their own thunderous round of applause.

By ten-thirty most of the audience had left and those who hadn't gone yet were in line, moving up the steps toward the rear doors of the showroom

Although no second show was scheduled this evening, as would be the case every night henceforth, busboys and waitresses were busily clearing tables, resetting them with fresh linen and silverware for the following night's eight o'clock performance.

The tables were draped with white cloths and burdened with food: five hot hors d'oeuvres, lobster salad, crab salad, pasta salad, filet mignon, chicken breasts in tarragon sauce, roasted potatoes, cakes, pies, tarts, fresh fruits, berries, and cheeses

After their fourth encounter, she lost track of how long they were together

Tina gave her address to him, and then somehow they were talking about jazz and Benny Goodman, and then about the miserable service provided by the Las Vegas phone company, just chatting away as if they were old friends

The skirts of the night were gathered around the Evans house, rustling in a dry desert wind.

There were no words

He was desperate to get out, and she was frantic to rescue him; but he was chained, unable to climb, and the sides of the pit were sheer and smooth, so she had no way to reach him

Though Danny's screams were increasingly muffled, they were even more urgent than before, because the dirt began to cover his face and pour into his mouth

Her wits were dulled by wine and exhaustion

If he became verbally violent and abusive, if he were irrational, she would need to have a clear head to deal with him

The airplane models were no longer in the display case; they were strewn across the floor, and a few were broken

The tubes of glue, miniature bottles of enamel, and model-crafting tools that had stood on his desk were now on the floor with everything else

The closet doors were open, and all the clothes inside appeared to have been thrown on the floor

"Vandals were in my house last night," Tina said.

She doubted that he would be able to answer that question even if he were present to hear it

At least two or three thousand people were in the casino, which was larger than a football field

Hundreds of gamblers - pretty young women, sweet-faced grandmothers, men in jeans and decoratively stitched Western shirts, retirement-age men in expensive but tacky leisure outfits, a few guys in three-piece suits, salesmen, doctors, mechanics, secretaries, Americans from all of the Western states, junketeers from the East Coast, Japanese tourists, a few Arab men - sat at the semielliptical blackjack tables, pushing money and chips forward, sometimes taking back their winnings, eagerly grabbing the cards that were dealt from the five-deck shoes, each reacting in one of several predictable ways: Some players squealed with delight; some grumbled; others smiled ruefully and shook their heads; some teased the dealers, pleading half seriously for better cards; and still others were silent, polite, attentive, and businesslike, as though they thought they were engaged in some reasonable form of investment planning

At the craps tables, the crowds, primarily men, were more boisterous than the blackjack aficionados; they screamed, howled, cheered, groaned, encouraged the shooter, and prayed loudly to the dice

On the left, slot machines ran the entire length of the casino, bank after nerve-jangling bank of them, brightly and colorfully lighted, attended by gamblers who were more vocal than the card players but not as loud as the craps shooters

And everywhere in the gigantic casino, there were cocktail waitresses in brief costumes, revealing long legs and cleavage; they bustled here and there, back and forth, as if they were the threads that bound the crowd together.

The game minimum was a five-dollar bet, and all seven seats were taken

Some dealers were cold and uncommunicative, but Michael felt the day went faster when he was friendly with people

An overturned stool lay beside him, and approximately five hundred dollars' worth of green chips were scattered on the carpet

Two uniformed security men were performing first aid on the unconscious man, loosening his tie and collar, taking his pulse, while a third guard was keeping curious customers out of the way.

When at last they reached the end of the casino and were on the escalators, heading down toward the shopping arcade, Tina said, "What is blackjack blackout?"

Crowds surged past the souvenir shops, art galleries, jewelry stores, clothing stores, and other retail businesses, but they were neither shoulder-to-shoulder nor as insistent as they were upstairs in the casino.

When they were first married, he'd been fun, charming, easygoing, but he had not been that way with her in a long time.

As they walked, Michael continued to try to amuse her by telling her about other unusual maladies to which gamblers were prone.

"I think they were just trying to upset me, scare me."

He was happy being a blackjack dealer; his salary and his good tips were enough for him, and he was content to coast through the years

"You were wrong to think I'd come crawling back

"You were the one who started fucking anything that breathed, and then you flaunted each cheap little affair to hurt me

We were talking about family life, about Danny."

But you were too busy using all those women to hurt me and to prove to yourself what a stud you were

His eyes were dark with rage

"You're the same goddamn bitch you always were."

Her eyes were red, but she wouldn't pass for Dracula

In the hard light, the enormous architectural confections were not always appealing; at times, in spite of the billions of dollars of value that it represented, the Strip looked grubby.

Because she was seldom in her office at night, the drapes were rarely open

This afternoon, as usual, the drapes were closed

These were customers to whom the hotel was especially anxious to cater, and the more the Pyramid knew about them, the better it could serve them

She scanned the list of VIP customers who hadn't attended the opening of Magyck! Using a red pencil, she circled those names that were followed by anniversary dates, trying to ascertain how large a promotion she was proposing

Between the names of two high rollers were five lines of type that had nothing to do with the information she had requested:

The number was 1001012, identified as the access for "Comps," which meant "complimentary guests," a euphemism for "big losers," who were never asked to pay their room charges or restaurant bills because they routinely dropped small fortunes in the casino.

Her fingers were damp

The names and addresses of VIP customers who had missed the opening of Magyck! - Along with the wedding anniversaries of those who were married - began to appear on the screen, scrolling upward

"What were you doing on the third floor?" she demanded

When we finished our work a couple minutes ago, I came up to see if you were here

And if he were lying, he wouldn't have told her the story about Charlie and coffee, for that could be substantiated or disproved with only a minimum of effort; he would have come up with a better alibi if he really needed one

She couldn't pour for them because her hands were shaking too badly.

All of them were top-notch scouts - and all of them died along with Jaborski and Tom Lincoln.

No one in his right mind would take boys as young as twelve into the deepest parts of the Sierras, no matter how well prepared, supplied, and trained they were, no matter how strong, no matter how many big brothers were there to look out for them."

From there they were going to hike for three days with snowshoes and backpacks, making a wide circle around the bus, coming back to it at the end of the week.

There were no guardrails in the wilderness, no wide shoulders at the roadside with gentle slopes beyond

"You were frightened-"

"If he were alive," Elliot said patiently, "someone would simply come and tell you

Aware that her answer had disappointed him, she looked down at her hands, which were laced together so tightly that her knuckles were white.

If Danny were alive, and if someone were trying to get that news to you, it wouldn't be done like this, not with all these dramatic hints

If that were the situation, we'd have the grave opened very quickly

Elliot found the bottle of liquid soap and the dishcloth that were stored under the sink

"Army Intelligence? You were a spy?"

The rooms were warm, inviting, decorated in earth tones, with J

We were lucky

We were in the right place at the right time

Some of our clients made smart moves and were carried right to the top by the explosive growth of the gaming industry and the Vegas real-estate market, and we just sort of shot up there along with them, hanging on to their coattails."

They were both being driven by natural forces

They both realized that they were in need of each other, physically and mentally and emotionally, and that whatever happened between them would be good.

Although winter days in the desert were often as warm as springtime elsewhere, winter nights were always cool, sometimes downright bitter

He was not a particularly large man, but he picked her up in his arms as if she were a child.

Elliot switched on the bedside lamp to prove to her that they were alone in the room.

She had told him about the dreams, but he hadn't realized, until now, how terrible they were

Many of the faces were familiar to Elliot

Half of the guests were attorneys and their wives

Although a judicial purist might have disapproved, prosecutors and public defenders and tax attorneys and criminal lawyers and corporate counsel were mingling and getting pleasantly drunk with the judges before whom they argued cases most every week

There were too many attorneys and not enough civilians to make the bash interesting

The conversations were like those in which he was involved at work, eight or ten hours a day, five days a week and he didn't intend to spend a holiday nattering about the same damned things.

A silencer-equipped pistol, lock-release gun, truth serums - their apparatus indicated that these guys were part of a sophisticated outfit with substantial resources.

They were unhappy to hear the judge's name.

"Goddamn it, I said you were going to answer the questions from now on."

"Hell, you won't be able to tell them who we were or where they can start looking for us

They wanted to gain his cooperation without violence because they were reluctant to mark him; their intention was that his death should appear to be an accident or a suicide

If there were no unusual marks on his body, no injuries incompatible with the coroner's determination of suicide, the police would be quickly satisfied.

They were mostly horror comics.

In the carton were two stacks of comic books, and the two issues on top sported gruesome, full-color covers

When Danny had first begun collecting horror comics with his allowance, she had closely examined those books to decide whether or not they were harmful to him

They were going to great lengths to avoid using violence, which confirmed Elliot's suspicion that they wanted to leave him unmarked, so that later his body would bear no cuts or bruises incompatible with suicide.

They were only an arm's length apart.

In the living room, other furniture was knocked over, and books were strewn on the floor

The plates were smeared with mud.

He found some small change, a comb, a wallet, and the sheaf of papers on which were typed the questions that Elliot had been expected to answer.

CIA operatives were loaded with ID, even if it was in a phony name

In half the countries in the world, there were secret police, modern gestapos, and citizens lived in fear of a late-night knock on the door

Even if the government had established a secret police force, however, why was it so anxious to cover up the true facts of Danny's death? What were they trying to hide about the Sierra tragedy? What really had happened up in those mountains?

If these people were determined to kill him just to stop the exhumation, they would have to kill Tina

In letters that were supposed to look as if they had been formed from rotting shroud cloth, the artist had emblazoned the title across the top of the first page, above a somber, well-detailed scene of a rain-swept graveyard

The boy's vital signs were undetectable to the medical technology of that era

Most of the story dealt with Death's attempts to stop the mother and father on their desperate night journey; they were assaulted by every form of the walking dead, every manner of living corpse and vampire and ghoul and zombie and ghost, but they triumphed

The roots of all dreams were to be found in the store of experiences in the psyche; dreams were not sent like ethereal telegrams from spirits or gods or demons

It had been published only two years ago, long after she had decided that horror comics were harmless.

The keys were in the ignition

His hands were shaking.

Too late, he saw the sign at the fourth intersection - NOT A THROUGH STREET - but they were already around the corner and headed down the narrow dead end, with nothing but a row of ten modest stucco houses on each side.

He drove into the open garage as boldly as if it were his own

Apparently, Tom couldn't conceive that burglars, psychopathic killers, and other lowlifes were permitted to purchase a Mercedes-Benz if they had the money for it

Tina continued: "You're just not the man we were supposed to see, that's all

He said the garage door would be open and that we were to pull right inside."

Sol said we were to pull in, out of the driveway, so that he'd have a place to put the boat when he got here with it."

Obviously, it pleased Tom to think that people who could afford a Mercedes were not so smart after all

"We were swindled?" Tina asked, feigning shock, buying time.

They were far from Tina's neighborhood now

"I didn't say anything about what you'd choose if it were up to you

They were getting too far out of town

The land began to rise toward Mount Charleston where, less than an hour away, pine forests were mantled with snow

But before we go in, let's check out that list of questions they were going to make you answer."

He had told Tina that Kennebeck's bosses were not omniscient

He and Tina apparently were confronted with a powerful, lawless, dangerous organization hell-bent on keeping the secret of the Sierra tragedy

Eleven customers were clustered at the end of the long arm of the L, near the entrance, five on stools at the counter, six in the red booths

When Elvira left the table and they were alone, Tina said, "Let's see the papers you took off that guy."

There were three sheets of paper, each containing ten or twelve typewritten questions.

Most of the questions were concerned with how much Tina knew about the true nature of the Sierra accident, how much she had told Elliot, how much she had told Michael, and with how many people she had discussed it

There were no more intriguing tidbits like Project Pandora, no more clues or leads.

"About half the others were buried without viewings," Tina said.

All the other parents were asked to identify their kids, even though some of the corpses were in such a horrible state they couldn't be cosmetically restored for viewing at a funeral

Michael and I were the only ones who were strongly advised not to look at the remains

If that many voices were raised, then Vince's bosses couldn't risk silencing all of them, and we'd be safe

because of what they saw, they were killed?"

"Remember, there were two adults with those kids

The cheeseburgers were made from juicy ground sirloin

The French fries were crisp, and the coleslaw was tart but not sour.

If the body were exhumed and reexamined by a top-notch pathologist, we'd almost certainly find proof that the cause of death wasn't what the authorities originally said it was."

The bodies were brought out of the mountains, down to Reno."

The long wing of the diner was nearly full of customers now; about forty people were eating dinner or waiting to be served

Some were laughing

None of these people had to worry about professional killers, bizarre conspiracies, gas-company men who were not gas-company men, silencer-equipped pistols, exhumations

They didn't realize how lucky they were

She felt as if a vast unbridgeable gap separated her from people like these, and she wondered if she ever again would be as relaxed and free from care as these diners were at this moment.

They were just ordinary people in a roadside restaurant, having dinner.

Elliot shook the machine harder than he had done the last time, then harder still, but it continued to repeat the two-word message in the voice of the country singer, as if an invisible hand were holding the pick-up stylus or laser-disc reader firmly in place.

"We were wrong

Maybe there was an accident, but it wasn't like anything we were told

Yeah, I do remember some little things he did that were sort of odd."

He certainly wasn't old enough to remember all the cards that were dealt and calculate his chances from that, like some of the very best players can do

And even if those were examples of psychic ability, little tricks like that are light-years from what you're attributing to Danny now."

After all, the last couple of years we were married, Michael was running around with a lot of other women, spending most of his time away from home, and Danny felt even more abandoned than I did

She felt as if he were not merely looking at her but into her, through her

Dealers in black trousers, white shirts, and string ties were ascending.

He compared it once more with the numbers on the electronic board, as if he were praying that he had made a mistake the first time.

The walls of his den were lined with examples of his hobby

Every ship was created with remarkable care and craftsmanship, and many were in uniquely shaped bottles that made their construction all the more difficult and admirable.

If Stryker could be believed, the woman's motivations were innocent enough

They would have opened the grave secretly, at night, when the cemetery was closed, switching the remains of the fake Danny for the rocks that were currently in the casket

His eyes were green, clear, alert, and - if one took the time to study them - menacing

Part of this antagonism between them rose because they had been born into utterly different worlds and were equally proud of their origins - as well as disdainful of all others

Alexander knew nothing of hard work; he had ascended to the top of his field as if he were a prince with a divine right to rule.

The society-register Alexander's were proud of their history of public service

Kennebeck's politics were of the extreme right-wing variety

But all the snoop shops were staffed with leftists too

But a long time ago you were Stryker's mentor, the man he respected, the man he learned from, and now you've betrayed him

They were both silent, thinking

"You were so sure they didn't know a thing about the Sierra labs," Alexander said

Snow flurries were dancing on a changeable wind.

He wished they'd thought of gloves; his hands were freezing.

The headlights flashed on and off so rapidly that, they created a stroboscopic effect, repeatedly "freezing" the falling snow, so that it appeared as if the white flakes were descending to the ground in short, jerky steps.

Zachariah moved to another bank of computer screens, where Danny Evans's heartbeat, blood pressure, body temperature, and brainwave activity were constantly displayed

"Even if I were in charge of making policy," Zachariah said, "I'd take the same course Dr

He didn't have any choice but to commit the installation to it once we found out the damn Chinese were deeply into it

They aren't the same as they were when he first came in here a year ago."

For the most part, Reno's streets were clean and dry in spite of a recent snowfall, though occasional patches of black ice waited for the unwary motorist

A few evergreen shrubs were clustered near the house, but none was of sufficient size to conceal a man

The rear windows were blank, black; a sentry might be standing behind any of them, invisible in the darkness.

And if assassins were waiting here, they would expect their prey to approach the funeral home boldly, confidently

The crunching and squeaking of the snow under their feet seemed horrendously loud to him, though they actually were making little noise

His fingers were stiff from the cold

The poor man's blue-lipped mouth hung in a permanent gape, as if he were trying to deny all of the accusations of suicide that were to come.

Even in the dim, illusory light from the surrounding snow, Elliot could see that the sentry's eyes were fixed in the same unseeing gaze that Bellicosti was even now directing at the bathroom window.

"They even knew we were coming here."

Evidently the people in the funeral home were not aware that their man outside had been eliminated

They were still waiting patiently for their prey to walk into the trap.

When they were nearly halfway across the graveyard, when Elliot was positive they weren't being pursued, he stopped, leaned against a tall monument, and tried not to take such huge, deep gulps of the painfully cold air

when you were in the army..."

They embraced, and then she said, "If they knew we were flying to Reno, why didn't they follow us from the airport? Then they would have known we weren't going to walk in the front door of Bellicosti's place."

And I guess they were so sure of where we were headed, they didn't think it was necessary to keep a close watch on us

Elliot recognized them for what they were

The two men were approaching at a run, slipping on the snows-potted pavement.

His pounding footsteps were as thunderous as drumbeats in the quiet night air

On this holiday weekend the hotel was officially booked to capacity; however, Elliot knew accommodations were always available

In addition, some reservations were canceled at the last minute, and there were always a few no-shows

He and Tina were given a spacious, pleasantly decorated room on the ninth floor.

They wanted nothing more than to touch and to be touched, to confirm for each other that they were still alive, to feel safe and protected and cherished

After encountering so many people with so little respect for human life, they needed to convince themselves that they really were more than dust in the wind.

After a few minutes he said, "You were right."

It's the way we were meant to be, so who's to say it isn't right?"

They were silent for a while

They were in a ten-passenger jet that belonged to the Network, and the aircraft took a battering from the high-altitude winds that blew across its assigned flight corridor

And George Lincoln Stanhope Alexander, who was an heir to both the fortune of the Pennsylvania Alexander's and to the enormous wealth of the Delaware Stanhopes, had absolutely no patience with people who were penurious.

It was Jacklin's job to conceive new welfare programs, convince the Secretary of Health and Welfare that those programs were needed, sell them to the Congress, and then establish convincing bureaucratic shells to conceal the fact that the programs were utterly phony; and as federal funds flowed to these false-front operations, the money was diverted to the Network

Lesser amounts, ranging from only one hundred million to as much as half a billion, were secretly extracted from the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and other government bodies on an annual basis.

But he was also frustrated because so few people were aware of his great importance.

These diplomatic and intelligence-gathering assignments were never an insult to his family name, but they were always minor postings to embassies in smaller countries like Iceland and Ecuador and Tonga, nothing for which The New York Times would deign to acknowledge his existence.

At least half of the people who worked for it did not even realize it existed; some thought they were employed by the FBI; others were sure they worked for the CIA; and still others believed that they were in the hire of various branches of the Treasury Department, including the Secret Service

The Alexander's were all idealists when they were discussing the way things ought to be, but they were also hardheaded pragmatists when dealing with the way things actually were

They knew that the worlds of domestic military security and international espionage were not children's playgrounds

Yes, he was sure that his father and uncles would give him their blessings - if only he were permitted to tell them.

She turned, and she was looking into the grinning face of Death, as if he were peering out at her from the bowels of Hell

The hole in the wall was not wide enough for him to step through, into her passageway; he could only thrust one arm at her, and his long, bony fingers were an inch or two short of her

She stared at the tangled bedclothes as if she were searching for inspiration in the creases of the linens

After the old man hung up, Alexander called his own office, in no mood to be told that Elliot Stryker and Christina Evans were still at large

Two sporting-goods stores and two gun shops were within easy walking distance of the hotel

I guess you were right about needing to be in a trance."

The creases in his slacks were as sharp as blades, and his blue sport shirt was starched, crisp

Fresh roses were arranged in a cut-crystal vase in the center of the table, and clean lines of light gleamed in the exquisite glass

Sandstone didn't have the faintest idea why they were in Reno or what they were seeking in the mountains.

Elliot had suggested a change in the color of ink, so they would be able to tell the difference between the meaningless scribbles that were already on the map and any new marks that might be made.

An expression of pain settled over Billy's face, as if he were suffering genuine physical discomfort because of Elliot's belief in ghosts

Earlier this morning it had occurred to Elliot that he and Tina were the only people who knew that the official story of the Sierras accident was a lie

If they were killed, the truth would die with them, and the cover-up would continue

Stryker and the woman were proving to be worthy opponents.

Where were they?

The evergreens - pine, spruce, fir, tamarack - were flocked with snow

On paper, they were still moving along the border of the map, with a large expanse of blues and greens on their left

They both felt as if they were on a good roll, and they didn't want to tempt fate by postponing their journey.

Now they were on a narrow county road, moving steadily higher as the valley sloped toward its northern end

"I didn't know there were any."

They passed a few signs that told them the lane they were using was kept open for the exclusive benefit of federal and state wildlife officers and researchers

Only authorized vehicles were permitted, the signs warned.

He stopped, put the Explorer in reverse, and backed up twenty feet, until the headlights were shining on the trail that she had spotted.

Bizarrely, the unplowed trail had led them to a paved road; steam rose from it, and sections of the pavement were even dry.

They were no more than six or eight feet from the lighted shack, close enough to see the guard's face as he scowled at them through the large window.

But there were no bullets.

Elliot held the vehicle on the pavement as they rounded the bend, and then they were out of the guard's line of fire

She began to wonder exactly what sort of little boy they were going to find at the top of the mountain.

Who were these two people? Why weren't they hiding in a dark corner somewhere? Why weren't they scared witless? Christina Evans was only an ordinary woman

Where were they getting their strength, their nerve, their endurance? It seemed as if they must have some advantage of which Alexander was not aware

Tall lampposts were arrayed across this featureless plain, casting dim, reddish light that was severely directed downward to attract as little attention as possible from aircraft that strayed out of the usual flight patterns and from anyone backpacking elsewhere in these remote mountains

Yet the weak illumination that the lamps provided was apparently sufficient for the security cameras to obtain clear images of the entire plateau, because cameras were attached to every lamppost, and not an inch of the area escaped their unblinking attention.

Jeeps, Land Rovers, and other four-wheel drive vehicles - eight in all - were lined up in front of the low building, side-by-side in the falling snow.

On its breath were sprays of snow like icy spittle.

A camera and two-way video communications monitor were mounted in the left-hand wall of the vestibule

Two uniformed men were anxiously fiddling with the control consoles beneath a series of twenty wall-mounted video displays

All of the screens were filled with wiggling lines.

The flakes were hard, dry, and granular; they hissed like driven sand across the Perspex windscreen.

Jack Morgan, the pilot, glanced at George Alexander and said, "This will be hairy." He was wearing night-vision goggles, and his eyes were invisible.

"When we were running operations against the drug lords down in Colombia," Morgan said, "they called me 'Bats,' meaning I had bats in the belfry." He laughed.

He moved his hands over it slowly, as if he were caressing a woman

It opened onto a junction of two hallways, which Tina had discovered a few minutes ago, just after Elliot had shot the guard, when she had peeked through the door to see if reinforcements were on the way.

They were deserted now too

One passageway extended fifty feet to the left of the door and fifty feet to the right; on both sides were more doors, all shut, plus a bank of four elevators on the right

According to the indicator board above the doors, they were on the fourth of four levels

Tina knew that she and Elliot were finished if someone came out of that room and saw them

If they were discovered and confronted by a squad of angry security men, Elliot's one pistol might not be enough to discourage an assault

They followed the blinking lights to the end of the short wing in which the elevators were situated

They were in a rectangular room approximately forty feet by twenty

There were more video displays than Tina could count at a glance; most were switched on, and data flowed in the form of graphs, charts, and numbers

Tables were arranged along the fourth wall, covered with books, file folders, and numerous instruments that Tina could not identify.

Danny's eyes were strange

But they were sunken, ringed by unhealthy dark skin, which was not the way they had always been

As his legs came out from under the covers, the hospital gown slipped off them, and Tina saw that his poor limbs were too bony and fleshless to safely support him

One by one, she removed the eighteen electrodes that were fixed to his head and body

But if we closed up shop, if we stopped doing this sort of research just because we were afraid of men like Tamaguchi winding up in charge of it, we'd be conceding so much ground to our enemies that we wouldn't survive for long

The child still clung to her, but his deeply sunken eyes were riveted on Dombey.

They were never able to find an antibody or an antibiotic that was effective against it

Almost thirteen months ago, when Danny and the other boys in his troop were on their winter survival outing, one of our scientists, a quirky son of a bitch named Larry Bollinger, accidentally contaminated himself while he was working alone one morning in this lab."

They were just about to move off the road, into the trees, so they would be away from any sign of civilization when they set up camp for their first night in the wilderness

When they were reluctant, he made up a story about a friend being stranded in the mountains with a broken leg

They were forced to shoot him."

One day later all of them were dead..

Each time that he personally killed someone, he felt as if he were establishing another link to the world beyond this one; and he hoped, once he had made enough of those linkages, that he would be rewarded with a vision from the other side

And for sure, if the people in this installation got the idea that Danny's newfound psychic abilities were a result of the parietal spot caused by his repeated exposure to Wuhan-400, they would want to test him, poke and probe at him

In the room near the elevators, people were still talking and laughing, but no one stepped into the corridor.

Danny opened the high-security elevator and made the cab rise once they were in it

His forehead was furrowed, as if he were concentrating, but that was the only indication that he had anything to do with the elevator's movement.

The hallways were deserted on the top floor.

As they drove off the plateau, around the burning wreckage of the helicopter, Danny said, "They were bad people

They were real bad people."

Among those in whom it struck a chord were the aforementioned producer, studio executives, and network pooh-bahs

Indeed, these meetings were enlivened by colorful storytelling - although none of it had to do with developing my novel into a two-hour filmed entertainment

By this time, we had passed the one-year mark in the development process, and I knew we were not going to wind up with a usable script, so I didn't insist on discussing whether the rubber tires would melt off the vehicle within two hundred yards or three, or ponder at what point the gasoline tank might explode

Ultimately, after months of interminable meetings, two of the scripts we developed were deemed filmable

Those letters were on Uncle Elias's envelope too!" We were both shaking and afraid.

Those are the words that were in the letter to my father.'

The winter storms at sea that year were worse than ever, and so the Star never arrived in Georgia, and nobody saw the captain or his men again

A policeman stepped out of the doorway and led us to one of the workshops where all the lights were on

More policemen were standing by the steam hammer, watching two men with a camera

But there was no possible doubt because the fingerprints of his left hand were the same as those found all over his laboratory and up at the house.

But we were never able to obtain any information from my sister-in-law

We were just finishing our lunch and I was pouring some wine into Henri's glass for him to dip a biscuit in

But then there were all the questions she had never answered: the most important ones.

What, then, could have made him put his head under that hammer? There were only two possible explanations

'I don't really know, Helene; but the fly you were looking for was in my study this morning.'

For one little moment it did not exist! It was only atoms travelling through space at the speed of light! A moment later, the atoms were once more gathered together in the shape of an ashtray!'

The three words were still there, but reversed:

Then one evening he came home smiling, and I knew that his troubles were over.

He opened the door of the booth - and I was amazed to see that the bottle of champagne and the chair were not there.

I put the bowl on his desk, then walked into the next room where all the lights were on.

There were papers everywhere, chairs lay on their sides, and one of the window curtains was half-torn and hanging down

But the eyes! Where the eyes should have been, there were two brown shapes the size of saucers

'Darling,' said Griselda, 'Why were you so angry with Colonel Protheroe? Was it anything to do with Mr Hawes?'

Four ladies, holding teacups, were gathered there with Griselda

'We were just talking', said Griselda, 'about Dr Stone and Miss Cram.'

that when they were abroad, her husband was killed

There were very few people that evening at the Wednesday church service, but afterwards, as I left, I saw a woman standing and looking up at one of our coloured-glass windows

She also had the most unusual eyes I have ever seen - for they were almost golden, too

The man's arms were round the woman and he was kissing her.

The two people were Lawrence Redding, and Mrs Protheroe.

As soon as we were, alone his manner changed

'Of course, if this were a book, the old man would die - and no one would be sorry.'

'Vicar, you were right

We thought that Inspector Slack would come and ask me what it was I had wanted to tell him, so we were surprised when Mary told us that he had gone

She kept asking if there were any suspects.'

'No, if you were committing a murder, you'd be very careful about things like that.'

And shot in the vicarage study? But you, dear Vicar, were not here at the time?' I explained where I had been.

Inspector Slack was at the police station and soon we were sitting opposite Lawrence Redding.

His eyes were looking at the note in my hand and I have never seen such pain in any human being's face.

At five-thirty, they were driven to the village

We were very surprised by this

We rang the bell and were shown by a maid into the sitting room.

At the end of the road, I think they were joined by Miss Cram

'They were smiling and talking,' said Miss Marple

'When was the last time you were at the cottage, Mrs Protheroe?'

We were just friends

We were all rather excited.

'Of course, you were upset,' said Melchett, trying not to smile.

Only the eyes were alive

I'm asking everyone where they were yesterday evening between the hours of six and seven p.m.'

'You were at home all afternoon?'

Third way - is there a third way? My idea was to see if any of the bushes were broken near the vicarage garden wall.'

But Miss Marple was sure she had seen nobody in the road when he and Anne were in the studio.

We turned and walked this way, but after a short distance, there were no more broken bushes

There were no fingerprints on the telephone because it had been cleaned

That's two strange telephone calls in one day, and I bet they were made by the same person.'

'There were not,' said the Inspector crossly

'Oh, nothing! We were just talking.'

There were tears in her eyes

There were tears in Mary's eyes

Inspector Slack's orders, when I spoke to him on the telephone, were short and strong

At Old Hall, we were shown into the sitting room

Across the top were the words:

On the floor, there were suitcases, broken furniture, and some pictures.

All these things were in the attic when I married Lucius and I've never looked at them before

This time I noticed some more small branches were broken

There were trees above, but again there were some broken bushes

Inside the parcel were some little silver objects and a silver plate.

'Perhaps they didn't know they were missing,' I suggested

'Mrs Protheroe, can you tell me if the contents of Old Hall were ever valued?'

Nobody ever liked him because he always thought he was right, and that others were always wrong

That evening, as I sat down to dinner, Griselda said, 'Oh, I forgot to tell you, Len, this note arrived for you when you were out.'

'Miss Marple, who do you suspect? You said that there were seven people.'

'That was someone who wanted to confess, and we were cut off.'

An empty pill bottle and a glass of water were on a table beside him

You thought you were speaking to Dr Haydock

But you were speaking to me

For the next ten minutes, they were careful to be seen by people in the village, then at last Mr Redding went back to the vicarage

Lawrence Redding and Anne Protheroe were accused of the murder and found guilty in court

Lettice came to see me just after they were arrested

'I wonder,' I said, 'if you were to commit a murder whether you would ever be found out.'

We had no idea that we were being studied almost as carefully as a scientist studies the small creatures in a drop of water

With great confidence, people travelled around this world and believed that they were in control of their lives

From this gun, their shots were fired at us.

Because it was so small, I did not see the Thing they were sending us, which was flying quickly towards me across that great distance

But no one suspected the truth, that the Martians had fired missiles, which were now rushing towards us at a speed of many kilometres a second across the great emptiness of space.

I pointed out Mars, a bright spot of light rising in the sky, towards which so many telescopes were pointing.

There were lights in the upper windows of the houses as people went to bed

He met some local people who were up early, but the story he told and his appearance were so wild that they would not listen to him

They listened, knocked on the burnt metal with a rock and, getting no answer, they both decided that the men inside were either unconscious or dead.

Of course the two were quite unable to do anything, so they went back to the town again to get help

By eight o'clock a number of boys and unemployed men were already walking to the common to see the 'dead men from Mars'

Henderson and Ogilvy were not there

Groups of people were hurrying from the direction of Woking

There were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on around the pit

I half-turned, still keeping my eyes on the cylinder, from which other tentacles were now coming out, and began pushing my way back from the side of the pit

Two large dark- colored eyes were looking at me steadily

They were all very frightened, but still interested in the strange happenings in the pit

They were too far away for me to recognize anyone there, but I learned afterwards that Ogilvy, Stent and Henderson were with others in this attempt at communication

Then flashes of bright fire came from the men, and I realized that the Martians were using some kind of invisible ray

Overhead the stars were coming out, and in the west the sky was still a pale, bright, almost greenish blue

The tops of the trees and the roofs of Horsell were sharp and black against the western sky

Areas of bush and a few trees still smoked, and the houses towards Woking station were sending up tongues of flame into the stillness of the evening air.

Two men and a woman were talking at the gate of one of the houses

And we also learned that the Martians were so mechanically clever that they did not need to use their bodies very much.

If, on that Friday night, you had drawn a circle at a distance of five kilometres from Horsell Common, I doubt if there would have been one human being outside it, unless it was a relation of Stent, whose emotions or habits were affected by the new arrivals

Even within the five - kilometer circle, most people were unaffected

All over the district people were eating dinner

Men were gardening, children were being put to bed, young people were out walking together.

And all night the sound of hammering could be heard as the Martians worked on the machines they were making ready.

He told me that during the night the Martians had been surrounded by soldiers and that field-guns were expected.

They were busy in the pit, and there was the sound of hammering and a column of smoke

I learned that they were shooting into the wood in which the second cylinder had fallen

Surprised people were coming out of their houses.

In another moment we were clear of the smoke and the noise, and moving quickly down the opposite side of Maybury Hill.

My feelings were quite different

Overhead the clouds were passing fast, mixed here and there with clouds of black and red smoke, although no wind moved the bushes around me

Then suddenly, the trees in the wood ahead of me were pushed to the side and a second enormous tripod appeared, rushing, as it seemed, straight towards me

Towards Maybury Bridge there were voices and the sound of feet, but I did not have the courage to shout or go to them

Between them were areas of fire and smoking ground

I turned my desk chair to the window and stared out at the country and, in particular, at the three enormous black Things that were moving around the common

It was a long time before he was able to answer my questions, and the answers he gave were puzzled and came in broken sentences.

They were turning their gun to fire on one of the tripods when it suddenly exploded

There were a few people still alive there; most of them were very frightened, and many of them had been burnt

The fires had died down now, but the ruins of broken and burnt-out houses and blackened trees were clear in the cold light of the dawn

They were an officer and two men.

It seemed like any other Sunday - except for the empty houses, and the other ones where people were packing.

Soldiers were telling people to leave and helping them to load carts in the main street

There was no great fear at this time, but already there were more people than all the boats could carry across the Thames

The stones under my feet were muddy and slippery, and the river was so low that I moved perhaps seven metres before I could get under the surface

When I lifted my head it was looking towards the guns that were still firing across the river

Thick clouds of steam were pouring from the wreckage, and through it I could see its long legs and tentacles moving in the water.

They had passed me and two were bending over the fallen one.

The cases that produced the Heat-Rays were waved high and the beams flashed this way and that.

For a moment we were silent, staring at each other

Another pause, and then he shouted, 'The smoke of her burning goes up for ever and ever!' His eyes were wide and he pointed a thin finger in the direction of Weybridge.

That night he made up his mind to visit me, in order to see the Things before they were killed

No one in London knew what the Martians looked like, and there was still a fixed idea that they must be slow: 'crawling', 'moving painfully' - words like these were in all the earlier reports

But none of them were written by anyone who had actually seen a Martian

But there was almost nothing to tell people until the government announced that the people of Walton and Weybridge, and all chat district, were pouring along the roads towards London.

Quite a number of people who had been expecting friends to arrive by train were standing at the station

On Waterloo Bridge a number of people were watching an odd brown liquid that came down the river from time to time

He learned that they were not just a few small crawling creatures, but that they could control enormous mechanical bodies

They were described as, 'great machines like spiders, nearly thirty metres high, as fast as an express train, and able to shoot out a beam of strong heat.'

Heavy losses of soldiers were mentioned, but in general the report was optimistic.

Guns, including some very large ones, were moving in quickly

One hundred and sixteen were now in position, mainly covering London

No doubt the Martians were very frightening, but there could not be more than twenty of them against our millions.

Certainly people were excited by the news, whatever they had felt before

The faces of the people showed that they were very tired

Some of the refugees were exchanging news with the people on the buses

Most were excited by their strange experience

There were one or two carts with refugees going along Oxford Street, but the news was spreading so slowly that Regent Street and Portland Place were full of people taking their usual Sunday night walk

Along the edge of Regent's Park there were as many romantic couples as there had ever been

Up and down the street other windows were opening and people were shouting questions

The sound of drums came from the army base in Albany Street and bells were ringing in every church

Most of them were going to Chalk Farm station, where special trains were being loaded.

All around him - in the rooms below, in the houses on each side and across the road, and all across London - people were rubbing their eyes and opening windows to stare out and ask questions, and getting dressed quickly as the first breath of the coming storm of fear blew through the streets

All of the six million people who lived in the great city were beginning to move

The Weybridge men, however, were better led or were more experienced

Hidden by a wood, it seems they were not noticed by the Martian nearest to them

The guns were reloaded quickly

After this it seemed that the three Martians spoke together, and those who were watching them report that they stayed absolutely quiet for the next half-hour

A few minutes later these three were joined by four other Martians, each carrying a thick black tube

Far away to the north-east we heard the Martians calling to each other, but our guns were silent.

You can see the quiet expectation, the officers watching, the gunners waiting with their horses, the groups of local people standing as near as they were allowed, the ambulances and hospital tents with the burnt and wounded from Weybridge

The men and horses near it were seen running, screaming, falling down

There were shouts of fear, the guns suddenly left behind, men on the ground struggling to breathe, and the fast spreading of the dark smoke - a silent black cloud hiding its dead.

By ten o'clock the police were finding it hard to keep control.

All the railway lines north of the Thames had been warned by midnight on Sunday, and trains were being filled

Passengers were fighting for standing room in the carriages even at two o'clock in the morning

By three the crowds were so large around the stations that people were being pushed over and walked on

Guns were fired and knives were used

The police who had been sent to direct the traffic, exhausted and angry, were fighting with the people they had been called out to protect.

People there were standing on the pavement, looking in surprise at the growing crowds of refugees

It seemed that she had had a gun all the time, but it had been under her seat when they were attacked

The robbers had had enough and were moving away.

My brother learned that the two women were the wife and younger sister of a doctor living in Stanmore, The doctor had heard about the Martians at the railway station, on his way home from seeing a patient, and had sent them off, promising to follow after telling the neighbour

There were people of every class and profession, but they were all dusty; their skins were dry, their lips black and cracked, and all of them looked very afraid.

In another moment they were caught and swept forwards with the stream of vehicles

But as soon as they were in the stream of vehicles, there was little they could do

They were taken through Barnet and were more than a kilometer beyond the centre of the town before they could fight their way across to the other side of the road.

There they stopped for the rest of the afternoon, because they were all exhausted.

They were beginning to feel very hungry and the night was cold

Until about midday there were still many ships on the Thames, attracted by the enormous sums of money offered by refugees

It is said that many who swam out to these ships were pushed away and drowned

People were actually climbing down onto the boats from the bridge above.

A number of people now, like my brother, were moving to the east, and some were even so desperate that they turned back towards London to get food

These were mainly people from the northern suburbs who had only heard of, but not seen, the Black Smoke.

My brother heard that about half the members of the government had met in Birmingham, in central England, and that enormous amounts of explosive were being prepared to be used in the Midlands

Although the three of them were hungry themselves, they decided to walk on.

Beyond these were the larger ships - a great number of coal ships, ships carrying goods, and neat white and grey passenger ships from Southampton and Hamburg.

There was food available, although the prices were very high, and the three of them had a meal.

There were already around forty passengers on the boat, some of whom had spent their last money getting a ticket, but the captain stayed until five in the afternoon, picking up passengers until the boat was dangerously crowded

One ship was passing behind another; many were turning

Steamships whistled and sent up clouds of steam, sails were let out and small boats rushed here and there

When his eyes were clear again, the warship had passed and was rushing towards the land

He looked past it at the Martians again and saw the three of them now close together, and standing so far out to sea that their legs were almost completely under water.

It seemed to him that they were surprised by this new enemy

The guns of the Thunder Child were heard going off one after another, and one shot hit the water close by the steamboat.

But the other warships were now quite close and moving in towards the shore.

We were surrounded by the Black Smoke all that day and the following morning

There were signs of people in the next house on Sunday evening - a face at a window and moving lights, and later the closing of a door

But I do not know who these people were or what happened to them

When we looked out I saw the country covered with black dust, but we were no longer trapped

Here and there along the road, and in Sunbury itself, were dead bodies of horses as well as men, turned-over carts and luggage, all covered thickly with black dust

As we passed other small towns, we found them unaffected by either Heat-Ray or Black Smoke, and there were some people alive, although none could give us news

Here too, there were signs of quick departure

We were too frightened to go on and hid in a hut in a garden

It was obvious that the Martians were all around us

We stood for a moment in terror, then ran through a gate behind us into a garden and hid in a corner until the stars were out.

There were two loaves of bread, a raw steak and some cooked meat

Under a shelf we found some bottled beer, and there were two bags of green beans and some lettuce

We now lay on the very edge of the enormous round pit that the Martians were making.

However, at first I hardly noticed the pit and the cylinder, because of the strange shining machine that I saw working there, and the odd creatures that were crawling slowly and painfully across the earth near it.

The fighting-machines were extraordinary, but could not compare to this building-machine

They were the strangest creatures it is possible to imagine

Around the mouth were sixteen thin, whip-like tentacles, arranged in two groups of eight

In three other ways their bodies were different from ours

Also, strange as it may seem, the Martians were absolutely without sex

The arrival of a second fighting-machine made us move back out of the kitchen into the hall, because we were afraid that from that height the Martian might see us through the hole

We were very different people with different habits of thought and action, and those differences increased because we were living together in this dangerous place

The curate was watching through the hole when the first men were brought there

I could see in every direction except behind me and there were no Martians in sight.

There were two ideas in my mind - to get more food and to move, as quickly as possible, away from the pit.

Here I moved through areas which had been totally destroyed and others which were totally undamaged; houses with their curtains and their doors closed

They were now looking for food somewhere else

Perhaps even now they were destroying Berlin or Paris, or maybe they were moving north.

The morning was bright and fine and there were little golden clouds in the eastern sky

I moved slowly because I was very tired and my plans were uncertain

'Why were you walking around on the common,' I asked, 'instead of being here?'

There, it seemed to me, I had the best chance of learning what the Martians and human beings were doing for death

The streets were horribly quiet

After that, the streets became clear of powder and I passed some white houses which were on fire

Beyond Fulham the streets were quiet again

A jeweller's window had been broken open in one place, but the thief had clearly been chased away, because a number of gold chains and a watch were lying on the pavement

In South Kensington the streets were clear of dead people and of black powder, and near there I first heard the howling

I came into Oxford Street by Marble Arch, and here again were black powder and several bodies

But before dawn my courage returned, and while the stars were still in the sky I turned again towards Regent's Park

I marched on without fear towards this great machine, and then, as I came nearer and the light grew, I saw that a number of black birds were circling and gathering around the top of it

Out of the top of it hung long, brown pieces of flesh, which the birds were tearing away.

And all around it, some in their overturned war-machines and some in building-machines, and ten of them lying in a row, were the Martians - dead! They had been killed by germs against which their systems could not fight; killed, after all man's machines had failed, by the smallest things that God has put on this Earth.

It is our home and would be ours even if the Martians were ten times as strong as they are.

They were surrounded by birds now

People who were still alive would start to return, and life would come back to the empty streets

Already men, crying with joy, as I have heard, were getting onto trains to go to London

And the food! Across the Channel, across the Irish Sea, across the Atlantic, corn, bread and meat were coming to us

They have told me since that I was singing a crazy song about 'The Last Man Left Alive! The Last Man Left Alive!' Although they were troubled with their own affairs, these people were very helpful to me

I was a lonely man, and they were very kind to me

I was a sad one too, and they were patient with me

Already they were busy with returning people; in places there were even shops open

I remember how bright that day seemed as I went sadly back to the little house in Woking - how busy the streets were, and how full of life

The churches were giving out bread sent to us by the French government, and tired-looking policemen stood at the corners of every street.

At Waterloo I found that free trains were taking people to their homes

The first rush had already ended and there were few people on the train

A number of people were standing by it, and some soldiers were busy in the middle

There were the remains of the meat and the bread, now gone bad, where the soldier and I had left them

And there, amazed and afraid, as I too stood amazed and afraid, were my cousin and my wife - my wife white and tearless

I know very little about medical matters, but it seems to me most likely that the Martians were killed by germs.

Certainly, in all the bodies of the Martians that were examined after the war, no germs were found except ones that came from Earth

Seven months ago, when these planets were close together, faint, dark marks appeared on photographs which suggested that a cylinder had been fired from one to the other.

'I have been married for three years, and my wife and I were very happy until last Monday

'"Oh," she said playfully, "you said that you were only my banker, and bankers never ask questions, you know."

'That night I did not tell my wife about the strange face and the rude woman, but I did tell her that people were now living in the cottage.

'No, there was a great fire in Atlanta after her husband's death, and all her papers were destroyed.'

There were four of us - George, William Samuel Harris, myself (my friends call me J), and Montmorency

We were sitting in my room and were smoking and talking about our bad health.

We were all feeling very ill, and we were unhappy about it

Those blows were good for me, because after each blow I went to do my work

We were not hungry

We all knew that our illnesses were caused by too much work.

We were three to one

Then I remembered that my cigarettes were in the suitcase

There were still the two hampers to pack

There were dishes, cups, bottles, pans, tomatoes, cakes and many other things to pack in the hampers.

The pies were crushed, just like the tomato.

He pretended that the lemons were rats, and killed three of them! This was Montmorency's idea of fun.

We were ready for bed.

At last, we were ready to eat breakfast

When we were finally ready, we carried our luggage to the road

We were enjoying the first moments of our holiday.

They wanted to get out because they were lost

Some of them were worried and afraid

Harris got lost! The people were angry with him

When we passed Molesey Lock, we were the only boat in the big lock

I remember that George once saw a young couple who were walking by the side of the river

They were pulling a rope behind them, and they were talking

When they looked back, they saw that they were towing a boat that was not theirs

We were all hungry and we wanted to eat

There were five metal rods

When the rods were in their holes, we tried to put the canvas cover on the boat.

We pretended that we were not interested in the water

Finally, we all had full stomachs, and we were happy

We were on holiday

We were very cold

We didn't know what scrambled eggs were

We thought they were some sort of Red Indian food, and, to cook them correctly, it was necessary to do special dances with magic words.

George and I were sorry when it was finished.

When the scrambled eggs were ready, there was very little to eat

I was steering I the boat, and George and Harris were enjoying the trip

We were alone and we flew along the river

There were three fishermen in it.

We felt that we were sailing into a strange land.

But, when we heard the bad words that came from the other boat, we knew we were near people

We also knew that those people were not happy.

There were fish all over them

These curses were for the present and the future.

We were sitting in a green field near the river

George and I were waiting with our dishes.

When we turned back, Harris and the meat pie were gone! Disappeared!

There were no trees nearby

Sadly, we looked at the place where Harris and the meat pie were sitting

We were happy and excited

When George and I were in Henley, Mrs Swan came back to the nest

'How many swans were there?' George asked.

He said, 'What swans?' He thought that George and I were dreaming.

We had a small breakfast and we were ready to go

Harris and I sang songs and we were quite happy.

We left a little opening to see where we were going

We were really tired of cold meat

We were awake at five o'clock the next morning.

Twenty minutes later, three men and a dog were going to the railway station.

We didn't have the courage to tell him the truth: we were running away from the rain!

We explained to him that we were not acrobats

After ten days of eating cold meat, we were thankful for this supper

But, I think we were right to come back when we did

As Connie asked the next question, she wondered if the words were leaving her lips

What use is a sister, if you can't have a talk with her? And what would their parents say if they were alive? They were good church-goers

'Eh, and how were the shoes?'

'James, where were you?'

If I were Mercy, I am sure that's exactly what I would do

In fact, if I were her, I wouldn't come back here either

'If I were you, I would stop worrying because it seems Mercy can take care of herself quite well,' said James.

Ah, but the footsteps were unmistakably Mercy's

Are those shoes the old pair which were new a couple of months ago? Or are they the newest pair? And here she is herself, the pretty one

'I hid behind that tree to see what kind of man you were

Mr Fairlie and his nieces were already in bed

Her clothes were old, so I gave her some of Laura's white dresses

At first, just after we were married, I tried not to think of Walter

Later, when we were alone, he told me he had only married me for my money

There Sir Percival, the Count and Madame Fosco were speaking quietly

I took one, using a false name, and Marian and Laura lived in the other under the same name; I said they were my sisters

I also heard that you were foolish enough to try to save him

Even so, your investigations were the cause of his death, and I thank you for that

When I got to our new house, Marian and Laura were waiting for me

He told me that Percival was dead, and that you were investigating Percival's secret when he died

But, when he and the doctor were outside the house, the Count changed his mind and sent the doctor away, saying that he'd been mistaken.'

Some parts of her mother's letter were of particular interest

April came - the month of spring - and things were beginning to change between Laura and me