For an indication of just how preoccupied I was on the short walk back from the clifftop I think I need only say that by the time I got back to the hotel I scarcely even noticed that dinner had started without me. The cocktail lounge was all but deserted and from the edge of the terrace I had a fine view into the dining room where I could see Michael and Henry James already tucking into their starters. Continue reading
We got the second floor wrapped up just in time for lunch but our plans to complete a full survey of the ocean side of the hotel were interrupted by another outbreak of beach cricket in the afternoon. In fact, the sport developed into something of a passion over the next few days amongst both staff and guests – pretty soon teams had been fixed and a full blown tournament was being organised – and I must confess I got kind of swept away with the spirit of the thing. Continue reading
Having made his confession Henry James declined the offer of a third bourbon and, pleading tiredness, retired to his room. I sensed that, on reflection, he rather regretted his candour for in the days that followed he returned to his elusive ways. Michael was undoubtedly disappointed to find no immediate opportunity for extending his acquaintance with the great novelist but I can’t say I was altogether bothered myself, having other things on my mind, not least the stalled search for Sturridge’s lost room. Continue reading
The next few days just seemed to sort of slip by. Our search for Sturridge’s hidden door became bogged down in a morass of good intentions that never quite got us anywhere. After much discussion Michael and I had decided that our best bet would be to secure a detailed plan of the building which we could use as a basis for a thorough search. Continue reading
It was somewhere near four o’clock the following afternoon when Michael and I finally reconvened in the cocktail lounge with the ostensible aim of at last getting our search for the hidden door started. I say ostensible because twenty minutes later when Maia walked by we still hadn’t managed to shift ourselves from the two comfy chairs into which we had initially sunk. Continue reading
“Now this is more like it.”
That at least was my first impression when we arrived at the latest location indicated by the inter-dimensional travel drive. A lonely, narrow road had led us onto a broad sweep of coastline by a dazzling blue sea. Most promisingly of all, in terms of hunting down the hidden room of Sturridge’s prison, it seemed that only one structure lay within the co-ordinates registered by the gadget – a grand hotel perched on a clifftop, overlooking a shallow bay. Continue reading
It had become something of an unwritten rule of our travels about the landscape that we should never pass an Imaginary Emporium without looking in. These rickety, old-fashioned stores were only ever to be found in remote, out-of-the-way locations and the range of goods they carried was eclectic to say the least. Continue reading
Travels Through An Imaginary Landscape 