11.   Postcoffee, the conversation drifted, but it made its way back to his new novel and its theological cast just as the waiter brought the check.

12.   Soccer can lapse into such tedious stretches that press-row conversations quickly can drift away.

13.   The conversation drifted to smuggling weapons and goggles into Jordan and about successful operations against the Israeli army that began in Jordan.

14.   The conversation drifted to an end when McDermott set to work at his computer, putting on his headphones and calling up sports radio on the Internet.

15.   The conversation drifted to the proper way to boil fish for breakfast.

16.   The conversation drifted.

17.   The conversation then drifted from this to that, but the innate curiosity of the media prevailed.

18.   Then the conversation drifted in another direction.

19.   Well, perhaps Forsyth has had it with writing about spies and spying, but his face lighted up when the conversation drifted that way.

20.   But among the men in another tent, the conversation quickly drifted back to events in Afghanistan.