THE NEXT MORNING GREDEL WOKE us before dawn. The burly man had gotten over his nerves around us and we'd discovered he had a pretty good sense of humour. We simply weren't in the mood to appreciate it first thing in the morningsure, we may have had eight hours sleep, but a dozen more would have been nice.

Waking to the sudden clashing of two tin plates wasn't the best start to the day. Gredel retreated from the room at a decent pace when all our heads jerked up at the racket. ...