The Lonely Sea. Alistair MacLean

      

      Alistair Maclean

       The Lonely Sea

      Collected Short Stories

       Copyright

      HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street,

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      This eBook edition 2009

      First published in Great Britain by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1985

      then in paperback by Fontana 1986

      Copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 1985

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021

      Cover photograph © Stephen Mulcahey.

      Alistair MacLean asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      City of Benares, The Arandora Star, Rawalpindi, The Meknes, The Jervis Bay and Lancastria published by the Sunday Express 1960.

      Rewards and Responsibilities of Success, The Black Storm and The Good Samaritan published by the Glasgow Herald 1982, 1995 and 1996.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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      Source ISBN: 9780006172772

      Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007289332

      Version: 2020-10-22

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      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

The Dileas

St George and the Dragon

The Arandora Star

Rawalpindi

       The Sinking of the Bismarck

       The Meknes

       MacHinery and the Cauliflowers

       Lancastria

       McCrimmon and the Blue Moonstones

       They Sweep the Seas

       City of Benares

       The Gold Watch

       Rendezvous

       The Jervis Bay

       The Black Storm

       The Good Samaritan

       Postscript: Rewards and Responsibilities of Success

       About the Author

       By Alistair MacLean

       About the Publisher

       The Dileas

      Three hours gone, Mr MacLean, three hours—and never a word of the lifeboat.

      You can imagine just how it was. There were only the four of us there—Eachan, Torry Mor, old Grant, and myself. Talk? Never a word among the lot of us, nor even the heart of a dram—and there on the table, was a new bottle of Talisker, and Eachan not looking for a penny.

      We just sat there like a lot of stookies, Seumas Grant with his expressionless face and yon wicked old pipe of his bubbling away, and the rest of us desperately busy with studying the pattern of the wallpaper. Listening to the screech of the wind, we were, and the hail like chuckies battering against the windows of the hotel. Dhia! What a night that was! And the worst of it was, we couldn’t do a thing but wait. My, but we were a right cheery crowd.

      I think we all gave a wee bit jump when the telephone rang. Eachan hurried away and was back in a moment beaming all over. One look at yon great moonface