The members of the executive committee had gathered for a typical weekend of amiable wrangling and serious bird-watching. They had hardly expected Charlie Todd, who owned the island, to announce that he planned to sell it. A sale would mean the end of the Observatory...and of all that, for some of them. made life worth living. A fire in Charlie Todd's cottage added to their distress. And when, next morning, after a fierce storm, they found Charlie dead in a bird hide, their pleasant September weekend assumed a dangerous new face.