... * By DENIS ATHERTON THE boy came out of the mist. He was a small figure, thin, with legs like dirty, pink sticks. His head was covered with a shock of matted hair crusted with white where the mist had settled. Silver rime outlined his eyes, frightened eyes that explored the moor, the bare, lonely, silent moor. For a long time he walked steadily into the mist, his step short and stumbling. ...

... WMH Mj SQ\iBJ\K Apropos of the coming of Christmas festivities, with the usual presents in mind, a young bride was remarking, My Peter is perfectly wonderful to me, Mother. He simply gives me everything I ask for. The retort: That merely shows, my dear child, that you are not asking enough. MARTYN GREEN, who plays all the comedian roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, tells the ...

... kit a nniii -'Ia'o Neil Bell J THE 600-ton Janet was the largest and latest of the fleet of twelve colliers owned by the Jesmond Steam Navigation Company of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Captain Grainger, her skipper, was a short, thick-set man of forty-five, with a face as hard as teak and as brown as mahogany. He was tough ana ne was pious an awe-inspumg com bination. His temper was choleric. Any ...

... ■By Jiolloway Shorn PETER VELLAMY contemplated the passing crowd from a chair outside the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo. He was at peace with the world and mildly amused by the very sophisticated section of it he could see as he sipped his drink. But that morning-- perfect as it was-- he was lonely: the poet, indeed, could hardly have chosen a more propi tious moment. His appearance was ...

... WnffiWte Maria's Carefully Guarded Secret Was Nearly Her Undoing By John Cordeaux THE Times of India lay neatly folded on the desk; and the personal mail had been placed on a silver tray, near the telephone. It was the bell's insistent ringing that brought General Powell into his study from break fast. Sitting before lifting the receiver, he held a slim gold pencil above his scribbling-pad. ...

... Pearls Are For Queens Veronique Was Referred To, By The Girls She Worked With, As Mademoiselle La Sainte Until By Maurice Dekobra IT all began one day in May. Veronique Doublet was busy tapping away at her typewriter in the auditing department of the Banque Internationale when Mme Morel, her supervisor, leaned over and said: M. Monsigul wants you to be in his office at ten thirty sharp. ...

... Miss Perring and Lady Milmain Memories Of The Days Of Her Youth. Were The Only Solace Of An Aged Spinster By Eve Orme THE waitress came to the table where the two old ladies sat. She looked questioningly at Lady Milmain, it being obvious that she in her expensive fur coat was taker-out, and Miss Perring, derelict and wispy in shabby grey, the taken. Buttered toast although I suppose it is ...

... Land ahead In a kind of dazed incredulity they all stared, nursing a doubt, a fear that the smudge ahead might prove only a mirage. But the two boats sped, no longer crawling, across the uneasy floor. The smudge grew. The landfall held. It was at least a solid nubbin of land, reef-encircled, apparently covered with rock and sea-plants and scrub vegetation. A slow surf whitened the reefs, which ...

... The Last Word Ernie Left Prison Determined To Revenge Himself On His Partner In Crime But Fate Forestalled Him By Chauncey Shilling AFTER fifty yards Ernie Smith turned round. He looked back at the arched gateway and it seemed to suck at him like the pouting mouth of some great omnivorous fish. Beyond towered the brooding buildings, the vast belly of the fish, swelling with the corrosive scum ...

... The World In Her Lap The Way Of Life Noreen Chose Was That For Her Own Happiness By Monica Ewer SHE stood the vase so that it should hide the stain on the wall. She arranged the roses loosely, trying to make them look plentiful and expensive, trying as usual to create an impression. She had bought the flowers three days ago for that little dinner to the man from the department store. He was ...

... Where Angels r r ear. It's Not W hat We Do In This World It's What People Say We Do By Hilton Brown MR. FLOCKHART, lean, pale and going a little too bald for his age, was taking the Sixth in Catullus. He said suddenly: Stop there a minute, Compton Radley! Radley's start was convulsive. Yessir Just go on from there, will you. Radley scrambled to his feet, thinking desperately. From where ...

... He Is My Love A Prince Charming Could Be A Very Tiresome Person For A Husband By Theodora Benson CAROLINE stood in her parents' drawing-room looking out upon Berkeley Square. She told her self that no nightingales sang there. She told herself that she was a poor little rich girl. Also she told herself that she was a silly, ungrateful, theatrical little dope; but this didn't help either. ...