NO MAN'S LAND

Young marine toxicologist Garth Larsen is doing research on a tabooed Melanesian island, utterly alone until a band of ""savages"" and crafty Mr. smith appear, bent on chasing him out of Molahve's waters. Noticeably slow to smell danger, Garth continues diving, one day finding a sunken ship containing four corpses and a cache of jewels. He muddles into a trap and from there on in it's an overlong battle of wits between him and a vicious enemy he doesn't even recognize: score one for Larsen, one for the other side, another for him, then a coup for them--till he remembers an old story where two and two kept making three-and-a-half and arrives at four, victorious. Sea-sawing between science and suspense it's an interesting adventure just a little too watered down.