La pesante pietra cadde

CONTENTS

1. The Pipeline Opens

2. Gem Quality

3. Hot Ice

4. "What Goes On Around Here?"

5."Feuilles Mortes"

6. In Transit

7. 'Shady' Tree

8. The Eye That Never Sleeps

9. Bitter Champagne

10. Studillac to Saratoga

11. Shy Smile

12. The Perpetuities

13. Acme Mud and Sulphur

14. "We Don't Like Mistakes"

15.Rue de la Pay

16. The Tiara

17. Thanks for the Ride

18. Night Falls in the Passion Pit

19. Spectreville

20. Flames Coming Out of the Top

21. "Nothing Propinks Like Propinquity"

22.Love and Sauce Béarnaise

23. The Job Comes Second

24.Death Is So Permanent

25. The Pipeline Closes

With its two fighting claws held forward like a wrestler's arms the big pandinus scorpion emerged with a dry rustle from the finger-sized hole under the rock.

There was a small patch of hard, flat earth outside the hole and the scorpion stood in the centre of this on the tips of its four pairs of legs, its nerves and muscles braced for a quick retreat and its senses questing for the minute vibrations which would decide its next move.