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While the oddly-assorted medical team of Doc, Rama Joan, and the Ra, Clarence Dodd led the rest of the men in an expedition back to the buried cars With three or four of theot underway easily enough in the sand, but tended to stall when they all tried to pile in, so Hixon, the Little Man, and young Hairy McHeath rode, while Paul, Hunter, and Wojtowicz trudged
Halfway there, McHeath ca back past them with splints and tape from Doddsy&039;s first-aid stores
"Don&039;t strain yourself, kid," Wojtowicz yelled after him "Run it like the two-mile, not the four-forty!
"The kid overdoes," he told Paul "I&039;h they are a pair of snooty old dames"
After the little trek, they helped Doddsy and Bill Hixon unload froon and onto the truck a for tins of food and near-beer, blankets, two leather jackets, a small tent, charcoal briquettes and kerosene, and a prilasses, which they instantly used to look at the Wanderer, but the lenses only stretched the purple and gold; however, the cracks on the surface of theon its second tily wide
Then fro to himself at the romanticism of it), and two arallon cans and a length of hose which they used to siphon gas from the tanks of the buried cars to fill the truck&039;s tanks and allon reserve
Wojtowicz shouldered one of the rifles and announced: "Hey, look, I&039;m back in the service! Forwardot a clownish side," he explained to Paul
The loaded truck, though sluggish once or twice in the looser sand, did the return trip readily enough Hixon even whirled it in for a landing as fancy as a speedboat&039;s with the tailgate abutting the raised platform
Doc&039;s comment, when he&039;d surveyed the treasures, was, "Doddsy, I see everything here for eencies but hard liquor - or soft, for thathis head incredulously at the label on a near-beer can
"I have an ample supply of barbiturates and Dexedrine," the Little Man batted back at hi," Doc oofballs Now if it were mescaline, say, or peyote, or even a few sticks of hed nervously, and Wojtowicz said solelance at Doc: "He&039;s jokin&039;, kid"
Doc grinned and said to the thin woman: "Break out the last of the hot coffee, Ida The Hixons still haven&039;t had any, or sandwiches either, and we can all do with a bite and a cup Noe know Doddsy&039;s got jars of the powdered, there&039;s no need to hoard
Besides, we&039;ll need the jug for water from the beach-house tank - I&039;ve checked it, and it&039;s drinkable So but a C2H5OH ht to H2O"
Agreeestion was unanilad to sit or flop on the platforritty sand In theirwrapped and taped until it looked, in Wojtowicz&039;s words, like a section of sewer pipe But the injureddosed with the rest of Doc&039;s whiskey - and with the Ra touch" on his hip
Ida poured first for the Hixons, ere sitting side by side now, he with his arm around her They looked at each other, then touched cups rather sole solemn about them all as they started to sip their last scant cups of brewed coffee As Hunter had divined earlier, each in his way felt that this place was home and dreaded the moment of departure Here on the beach there were no hills to fall, no buildings to collapse and burn, no gas pipes to crack and flare hot yellow, or wires to fall and flash blindingly (True, there was the beach house, looking lopsided noith one wall knocked askew by the quake, but it was dark and low and boarded up, and so could be ignored) There were no strangerstheir actions, no victies of catastrophe, what do&039;s and don&039;t&039;s, what police and Red Cross and Civilian Defense directives ood to drea here, a compatible little beach colony - just staying here and watching the Wanderer, which was sinking and showing toward the ocean, thea face like that of a bull charging purple head on, the yellow target-center half out of sight and a larger, lower yellow round creeping into view By chance, or conceivably by intention, two small yellow ovals made eyes Doddsy set down his coffee cup to sketch it
The Wanderer
"El toro," Margo said
Rama Joan said: "The head of an octopus The Cretans drew it just so on their vases"
"But we&039;re going to have to get out of here - and in three or four hours," Doc said suddenly, as if aware of the general, unstated drea forever on the beach "The tide"
Hunter frowned at hily and Doc hastened to say: "Now, don&039;t anybody get ht now, in fact, just the opposite The high-water interval here is about ten hours, which means a low tide comes about four hours after the moon&039;s at the top of the sky In other words, in about an hour the tide&039;ll be dead low See how far away the edge of the surf is? That leaves us aood rest - which I for one fully intend to take"
"But whaddya ain Hunter frowned and shook his head slightly
Doc said to Hunter: "No, Ross, I think we better face up to it noe&039;ve got a breathing space" Then, turning toward Wojtowicz: "You know of course how the moon - the mass of the moon - is the ot the Wanderer out there It&039;s about the same place as the eneral pattern as before"
"That&039;s good," Wojtowicz said "For a minute you hadat Doc now and they weren&039;t s from the way it&039;s captured the reat as Earth - in other words, asilence The one word "eighty" hung in the air like a gray rock, getting bigger and solider every second Only the Rareatly concerned Hunter was frowning worriedly, watching reactions Rahter, suddenly smiled at Doc warmly Mrs Hixon put out her hands a little as if to say, "But" Her husband drew thehter as he nodded sole an aro The Little Man pocketed his notebook and folded his arms
Doc looked back at the Harry McHeath who finally put it into words
"Youat the saeneral way as before, they&039;ll be eighty tier?"