He started taxi-ing, accustoming himself to the feel of a plane on water. Everything seemed to be working – throttle, rudder, elevator, ailerons. Sam had done his work well. The machine was as ready as Max – primed, set, eager. And the lake was clear and still. He opened the throttle.
Speed and noise stirred his memory. This was how it had always been. There was nothing like it. This was his element.
The plane accelerated across the lake, a flotilla of ducks scattering from its path, the waves it was making thumping against the fuselage. There was a boat in the distance, but Max reckoned they would clear it with ease. He glanced at the tachometer. The revs were right. Everything was right. His touch on the stick was gentle. The nose came up. They were off.
And climbing. Into the wide blue sky.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In The Ends of the Earth, as in the first two volumes of this trilogy, The Ways of the World and The Corners of the Globe, I have made no alterations to recorded history. Real people, places and events have been depicted as accurately as possible. Tokyo, where much of the action of The Ends of the Earth is set, has changed utterly – arguably, several times – since 1919. Anyone seeking to picture the city as it was before the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 is indebted, as I am, to Edward Seidensticker, author of Low City, High City and Tokyo Rising. I am also very grateful to Masahiro Wakabayashi of the Kyoto Prefectural Library & Archive for supplying invaluable information about Japan’s former capital, a city that has changed much less than Tokyo, and to my good friend Toru Sasaki for helping me in innumerable ways during research for this book.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Goddard was born in Hampshire and read History at Cambridge. His first novel, Past Caring, was an instant bestseller. Since then his books have captivated readers worldwide with their edge-of-the-seat pace and their labyrinthine plotting. The first Harry Barnett novel, Into the Blue, was winner of the first WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award and was dramatized for TV, starring John Thaw. His thriller, Long Time Coming, won an Edgar in the Mystery Writers of America awards. The Ends of the Earth is the final part in Robert Goddard’s extraordinary The Wide World trilogy set in the years after the First World War and featuring James ‘Max’ Maxted.
Also by Robert Goddard
Past Caring
In Pale Battalions
Painting the Darkness
Into the Blue
Take No Farewell
Hand in Glove
Closed Circle
Borrowed Time
Out of the Sun
Beyond Recall
Caught in the Light
Set in Stone
Sea Change
Dying to Tell
Days without Number
Play to the End
Sight Unseen
Never Go Back
Name to a Face
Found Wanting
Long Time Coming
Blood Count
Fault Line
The Wide World trilogy
The Ways of the World
The Corners of the Globe
For more information on Robert Goddard and his books, see his website at www.robertgoddardbooks.co.uk
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First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Bantam Press
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Copyright © Robert and Vaunda Goddard 2015
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Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448111114
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