 Last Ditch by Nioh Marsh. The book's dedication reads, For the Family at Walnut Tree Farm. CHAPTER I. DEEP COVE. With all their easygoing behaviour there was nevertheless something rarefied about the pheromones. Also, on his first encounter with them, it seemed to Ricky Allen. Even before they came into their drawing-room he had begun to collect this impression of its owners. It was a large, eccentric and attractive room, with lemon-coloured walls, polished floor, and exquisite, grubby Chinese rugs. The two dominant pictures facing each other at opposite ends of the room were of an irritable gentleman in uniform and a lavishly bosomed impatient lady brandishing an implacable fan. Elsewhere, he saw with surprise several unframed sketches, drawing pin to the walls, one of them being of a free, if not lewd, character. He had blinked his way around these incompatibles and turned to the windows and the vastness of sky and sea beyond them, when Jasper Pheromone came quickly in. RICKY ALLEN. He stated, How pleasant! We're all delighted. He took Ricky's hand, gaily tossed it away, and waved him into a chair. You're like both your parents, he observed. Clever of you. Ricky, feeling inadequate, said his parents sent their best remembrances, and had talked a great deal about the voyage they had taken with the Pheromones' fellow passengers. They were so nice to us, Jasper said, You can't think, VIPs as they were and all. They don't feel much like VIPs, which is one of the reasons one likes them, of course, but do tell me exactly why you've come to the island, and is the lodging Julia found for you insurable? Feeling himself blush, Ricky said that he hoped he'd come to work through the long vacation, that his accommodation with a family in the village was just what he had hoped for, and that he was very much obliged to Mrs. Pheromone for finding it. She adores doing that sort of thing, said her husband, But aren't you over your academic hurdles with all sorts of firsts and glories? Aren't you a terribly young don? Ricky mumbled wildly and Jasper smiled. His small hooked nose dipped and his lip twitched upwards. It was a fornish smile and agreed with his cap of tight curls. I know, he said, You're writing a novel. I've scarcely begun. And you don't want to talk about it how wise you are. Here come the others, or some of them. Two persons came in, a young woman and a youth of about thirteen years, whose likeness to Jasper established him as a pheromone. Julia, Jasper said and Bruno, my wife and my brother. Julia was beautiful. She greeted Ricky with great politeness and a ravishing smile, made in qu— Sample complete. Ready to continue?