text: > Go downward
  It is a quiet, moonlit night. The waters of the lagoon lap gently against the sand. Treacherous-looking rocks surround the beach, but a narrow path back up to the house has been cut into the cliff face behind you, and the rocks to the northwest look just safe enough to clamber over.
  
  You can see Cedric Crane here.
  
  Cedric Crane looks around at you and points off to the northwest. "There's a small tide pool out that way. That's where Mr Lamb and I found the body. I think it must have been a bit after 11:00 pm -- probably about 11:10 pm -- we're not surrounded by clocks out here as we are up in the house. We did take a closer look, of course, to make sure we weren't just making a horrible mistake, but otherwise we didn't touch anything."
  
  > go to the northwest
  As you begin picking your way through the rocks, Cedric Crane turns and heads back up to the house.
  
  If the beach was isolated, this rocky area is even more so. Seawater filters in through the rocks all around to fill this little tide pool, currently at a low ebb. On one side, the cliff rises sharply up, and from here you can just make out the broken window of Frederic Sheppard's study. The least treacherous path through the rocks goes southeast, back to the beach.
  
  A sturdy wooden post stands upright in the water, just a short distance from the body.
  
  Frederic Sheppard is sprawled across the rocks, clearly dead.
  
  > look at the body
  In life, Frederic Sheppard was a big man, still quite robust at the age of 60. Right now, he's looking quite battered from the precipitous drop from his study window; it is not immediately apparent if it was the fall which killed him, or something else. He is also quite thoroughly soaked, though he's mostly clear of the water.
  
  > search the body
  What's this? There's a bit of a broken branch clutched in his hand. He must have pulled it off of one of the scrubby little bushes in the cliffside, on his way down.
  
  Further examination of the body reveals a a number of injuries consistent with either a sharp blow with a blunt object, or an unfortunate encounter with the side of a cliff. You're not quite enough of a forensics expert to distinguish between the two.
  
  > get the branch
  You already have that.
  
  > Examine post
  A bold, white line near the top of the post indicates the high water mark. It seems pretty accurate: the wood still seems wet from the last high tide, right up to the mark itself.
  
  > look at the cliff
  By the light of the moon, you can make out a few stunted, twisted bushes clinging desperately to the rocks of the cliff.
  
  > Go southeast
  It is a quiet, moonlit night. The waters of the lagoon lap gently against the sand. Treacherous-looking rocks surround the beach, but a narrow path back up to the house has been cut into the cliff face behind you, and the rocks to the northwest look just safe enough to clamber over.
  
  > Go upward
  On one side is the steep cliff, punctuated with scrubby bushes clinging to crevices in the rock face; on the other side, you are completely exposed to the wide expanse of the sea. Stairs go up to the terrace of Gull Point, not quite visible from here, and the path itself winds down to the rocky beach below.
  
  > Go upwards
  The wide, stone-paved terrace overlooks the sea here to the west and south, and stairs lead down towards the beach. French doors go north to the billiard room and northwest to the library. The terrace itself continues to the west, around the corner of the library.
  
  > Go west
  You can't go that way.
  
  There is a sudden swell of dramatic music. It seems to be coming from the study.
  
  > go to the north
  This is Frederic Sheppard's study, a neat, spacious, modern room decorated with old theatrical bills. The library is through a door to the east, and french doors open south to the terrace. Cold, damp air flows in through the broken window to the west.
  
  The well-ordered study desk stands to one side of the broken window.
  On the study desk are a Faberge egg clock, a black telephone, a scrap of paper and an annotated ledger.
  
  A corner fireplace occupies, well, a corner.
  
  You can also see a wireless, an antique fireplace poker and a hunting rifle here.
  
  There is a sudden commotion: you hear raised voices and the sound of breaking glass from the wireless.
  
  > examine the scrap of paper
  Odd that this scrap of paper would be found sitting on Frederic Sheppard's pristine study desk, but perhaps he never got around to clearing it away. A telephone number has been hastily scrawled across it.
  
  From the wireless comes the soft hiss of static and the dramatic tension of a late-night radio show.
  
  > call number
  You're not messing with the dead man's telephone any more than you can help. A fancy country house like this ought to have another telephone that you can use, probably out in the hall.
  
  You hear a muffled explosion from the wireless. It's rather convincing, but in fact it is merely part of tonight's radio show.
  
  > get the scrap of the paper
  Taken.
  
  From the wireless comes the soft hiss of static and the dramatic tension of a late-night radio show.
  
  > look at the poker
  This poker hails from a time when fireplaces were the sole source of household heating, and, as such, were much larger and required pokers nearly the size of pool cues to reach properly into their recesses. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but you certainly wouldn't want to be poked by this particular poker.
  
  From the wireless comes the soft hiss of static and the dramatic tension of a late-night radio show.
  
  > Fingerprint poker
  The forensics crew will be taking everybody's fingerprints in the morning, if you can't determine a Most Likely Suspect before then; frankly, the Chief Inspector would really prefer to spare everyone the inky fingers. So right now, the only useful set of prints you're likely to have are Frederic Sheppard's ... and this being his home, they're on absolutely everything.
  
  From the wireless comes the soft hiss of static and the dramatic tension of a late-night radio show.
  
  > look at desk
  Frederic Sheppard's desk is spacious and tidy, with everything easily visible and within reach. A pair of drawers are stacked one atop the other on one side of the desk.
  
  From the wireless comes the soft hiss of static and the dramatic tension of a late-night radio show.
  
  > search the fireplace
  Which do you mean, the corner fireplace or the antique fireplace poker?
  
  > Corner
  You find nothing of interest.
  
  From the wireless comes the soft hiss of static and the dramatic tension of a late-night radio show.
  
  > turn off the wireless
  And not a moment too soon. That thing was as annoying as all hell.