Only after it was all over did I learn of their plan to seize me on board the Chungshan when I was to take it to go back to the Military Academy at Whampoa from Canton. They would then send me as a prisoner to Russia via Vladivostok, thereby removing the major obstacle to their scheme of using the National Revolution as a medium for setting up a dictatorship of the proletariat.

Nobody was killed, but a guy from the rival gang was supposed to have had his eyes popped out with a church key.

The tide was full and the dingey was off keel. The punt nosed the pebbly slope like a terrier, but her stern swung clear.

The walls are covered with good Massimos, and the spready tapestry-coloured canvas of Lucas Giordaino and Solimene.