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The freaks of the monster tides were innumerable, as the Wanderer-humped waters washed around the world
Currents in straits like Dover, Florida, Malacca and Juan de Fuca becaulped down like chips in a ainst winds had their resistance tested to rushing water They becaainst and broke them
Moored steaed in the don streets of ports, shouldering in the walls of skyscrapers
Lightships were torn frohthouses were inundated The Eddystone Light gleamed on for hours in the deeps after it went under
The permafrost of the Siberian and Alaskan coasts was ripped from below and melted by salt water In America and Russia atomic-arested atoh-tension lines were shorted out and reappeared six hours later draped reckage
The tiny tides of the Mediterranean becanitude that low-lying oceanic ports regularly suffer froh lunar tide
The Mississippi&039;s fresh water was spread thin over the salt tide pushing up from the Gulf across its delta to cover the streets of New Orleans
The Araiza brothers and Don Guillermo Walker encountered a similar phenomenon on the San Juan Late in the afternoon the river reversed its current, spread into the jungle to either side, and began to taste brackish Wreckage appeared, floating upstream They cursed in wonder - the Latins with a certain reverence, the Yankee theatrically, drawing a bit on King Lear - and headed the launch back for Lake Nicaragua
The population of great ports found refuge on inland hills or - less securely - in the upper floors of tall buildings, where dreadful little ere fought for living space Airlifts rescued a rando Heroic and merely stubborn or incredulous people stuck to posts of duty One of these was Fritz Scher, who stayed on all night at the Tidal Institute Hans Opfel, braving the shallowly flooded Ha to return with a Bratwurst on rye and two bottles of beer, but he never came back - overpowered by floodwaters or his own sense of self-preservation
So Fritz had no one at whohter when the tide went down during the evening hours And later, aroundmachine hoone down so far, according to the very few reports that were still trickling in But that rather pleased hi, sleekphysical He moved his desk beside her, so he could touch her constantly From time to time he went to aand looked out briefly, but there was heavy cloud cover, so his disbelief in the Wanderer was not put to the crucial test
Many of those fleeing the tides ran into other troubles that et the menace of the waters At noon, Pacific Standard Ti the saucer students were racing against fire Ahead, walls of fla which Monica Mountainway crossed the central spine of the Santa Monica mountains
Barbara Katz watched the tiny boave frole across the road and lose itself in the tall green swords of the saw grass, as Benjy stubbornly kept their speed down to a ly monotonous thirty As captain of the car, at least in her own esti up in front, but Barbara felt it was more vital that she keep in direct contact with her millionaire, so she sat behind Benjy with old KKK beside her and Hester beyond him, which put Helen up in front with Benjy and a pile of suitcases
The sun had just begun to look into the front of the car frolades The ere all closed tight on Barbara&039;s side and it was hot She knew that Lake Okeechobee ought to be soht and north, but all she could see was the endless green expanse of saw grass, broken here and there by clu cypress, and the narrow, ht, level road to a depth of never less than one inch or ht about that high tide, Miss Barbara," Benjy called back softly and cheerily "She come way in Never hear tell she come so far"
"Hush, Benjy," Hester warned "Mister K still sleeping"
Barbara wished she were as confident about her oisdom as Benjy sounded about it She checked the two of old KKK&039;s wrist watches strapped to her left wrist - two-ten, they averaged - and the tih tide at Palm Beach on the back of the calendar sheet - 1:45 p inland be later than on the coast? That was the way it ith rivers, she seeh, she told herself
An open carthe Rolls ater It forged swiftly ahead, beating up a storm in the water-mirror There were four rowled
"Wowee! Sure lucky we Sanforized," Benjy crowed "I Sanforize this bus with lots of high-yellow grease," he explained Helen giggled
The encounter roused old KKK, who looked at Barbara with red-ried little eyes that seemed to her to be alh the preparations and actual departure in a kind of stupor that had alarmed Barbara but not Hester "He just not had his sleep out, he be all right," Hester had told her
Now he said briskly: "Phone the airfield, Miss Katz We want two tickets to Denver by the next plane out Triple premiums to the reservation clerks, the pilot, and the air line Denver&039;s a h, out of reach of any tides, and I have friends there"
She looked at his
"Oh yes, I begin to remember now," he said heavily, after a moment "But why didn&039;t you think of the air, Miss Katz?" he co of the Black Ball Jetline on her lap
"I borrowed this from a friend I hitchhiked down from the Bronx I don&039;t flystillto rescue her millionaire so brilliantly and - dazzled by a Rolls Royce sedan - had missed the obvious way to do it, ht like a millionaire!
A corner of herwhether old KKK hadjust two tickets Surely he&039;d meant five - why, he talked to Hester and Helen and Benjy like they were his children
"We did at least bring some , we took everything fro a little comfort froh the fabric of her shoulder bag
The Rolls was slowing down The last car to pass theed, and the fourthe roads and waving
The sight galvanized her "Don&039;t slon!" she cried, grabbing the back of Benjy&039;s seat "Drive straight through!"
Benjy slowed a little more
"Do as Miss Katz says, Benjahing on the next word, which was, "Faster!"
Barbara could see Benjy&039;s head dran into his shoulders and ias
The four ths away, then juood bluff
She looked back and saw one of theun
Maybe I did the wrong thing, she thought
Like hell!