I’d run into the students on the bus, and it was then that they invited me to meet them later on the beach. From there we could travel together to their graduation dinner. I hadn’t confirmed this arrangement, so it was with some relief that I spotted them walking up the shore from my vantage point on the sand dunes.

I joined the only two girls in the group as we headed towards Hanover Street. They were not happy with the choice of restaurant. They moaned that Tex-Mex was downmarket and too laddish. These complaints were mild, however, in comparison to their accusation about a fellow student. Martin was a book thief!

The girls explained that on an earlier trip to a library in Warwick Martin had added to his growing collection of stolen rare book sections. Here he cut several pages out of a unique manuscript in the hand of William Shakespeare and pocketed them before innocently returning the book to the shelf. Two thoughts ran through my mind: (1) this library really needed to improve its security measures; (2) Martin should never expect a job reference from me.