Fraser was looking at the flat, wet countryside and thinking about the French policeman who had banjaxed him with the truncheon.

The dust-storms have been not merely unintermittent, but of a frightful character, even for North China. Within the past two or three weeks they have taken the form of violent winds, each of which at sea would almost make a young typhoon. In the Hengshui district we hear that the roof of a theatrical pavilion was blown for miles, and that two children were blown away, one killed, and the other never heard of.

The supermarket's new buyer decided to stock a larger range of vegetarian foods.

It had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled - the great knights-errant of the sea.