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Doc tootled the horn four times and stopped the Corvette just short of the rock slope where they&039;d ca his truck now In the Corvette, Ann was riding between Doc and her o and Hunter sat behind theh spirits, despite orblackly smeared and their clothes damp and dirty from the weird warm black rain, which had just now stopped and which they&039;d decidedup from Mexico and points south

"Or sea-muck uncovered by low tides and inded up," Doc had second-guessed "It tastes a touch salty"

The sky ild ht

"All out," Doc ordered gaily "Ross, run ahead and check for water in the dip I want to take her across before I get goosy"

Hunter obeyed Margo ith him

The truck pulled up behind the Corvette, and behind the truck the school bus, its yellow streaked more blackly than ever

Doc shouted to Hixon in the truck: "Tell your passengers to get out before we take the vehicles across, just like thisMcHeath! - pass the word back to Doddsy, and tell him to shoo his folks out of the bus fast We don&039;t want to waste any more time here than we have to Then post yourself by the bus and watch the road behind us"

Ann snuggled up against Doc She said excitedly: "Let me stay in the car with you I&039; off"

"That&039;d be great, sweetheart, but your Ma would say I was te his sainst hers Raiggling

"No water in the dip," Hunter called back At that s went out from under him and he sat down "But it&039;s dao grinning at hily "This film of wet ash is treacherous"

Rama Joan&039;s sently to Doc, "Can&039;t we fill the dip with stones and earth, or at least clean it off?"

He leaned toward her and answered in a low, fast voice: "Look, darling, those et so for the beach A lot of the it all their lives Second nature to them We really haven&039;t a minute to lose"

He sat back, honked the horn once and roared the motor "Here I come!" he warned

He drove fast and the Corvette jounced through the dip with no sideslip at all He parked it well ahead, then cao and Hunter were standing above the dip Ann was back by the bus, chattering to McHeath and ad anticlie" Hunter and Margo laughed Rama Joan smiled uncertainly

Ida called thinly from beside the truck: "Mr Brecht! Ray Hanks doesn&039;t want to be lifted out again"

Doc looked around at the others, shrugged, said: "It&039;ll save ti it over, Hixon!"

The truck got off to a fast start, too Only as it jounced by them safely did they see that Mrs Hixon was in back, braced over Hanks and holding on to the side across the cot

The school-bus passengers ca across: the Ramrod, Wanda - and Ida with them - but not Wojtowicz, who&039;d stopped by McHeath and Ann; finally Clarence Dodd and Pop arguing together, the latter protesting

Doc pulled his doubly black hat down on his forehead and headed toward them briskly "I know, I know!" he said as Pop opened his ill-toothed mouth at him "The back tires are slicker than everand so forth Leave it to Hotrod Rudy"

"One cylinder&039;s oing toward the bus

Clarence Dodd took note of Margo&039;s and the others&039; blackened faces "That shoould have delighted Charles Fort," he said, s ready for an Indian funeral"

Margo thought for the first tiirl in her tomb up the slope

Rama Joan suddenly started back toward the school bus after Doc Ann waved to her from beside him "Hi, Moled, and McHeath and Wojtowicz laughed at sohed into life and it ca

Popinto second"

The bus entered the dip very slowly Its front wheels hesitated coan to slide swiftly sideways Doc gunned the ainst the black-slimed stone Doc cut the wheels and braked The bus slid backward down the slope

McHeath shoved his rifle into Wojtowicz&039;s hands and ran down across the rock toward the bus, his feet hitting potholes and tiny ridges

The bus hesitated, then paused on the verge of the five-hundred-foot drop with one front wheel against a s hi hi for the lever that opened the front door

Hunter suddenly grabbed Margo by the shoulder, thrust his hand in her jacket, and pulled out the momentue hiht he could do: uessed, brace himself and offer a hand to steady Doc when he juot the door open and his head out of it Then the little rock popped out of the pothole and the back wheels of the bus slid over the edge, the floor slanting still rated harshly on the rock lip as it slowly slid over

Hunter squeezed the tiny recessed lever on top of the grip of the gray pistol between his finger and thumb and twisted it around so that the arrow pointed not toward the muzzle but away from it

Doc had his upper body out of the door when the bus overbalanced, setting hi out and doith him in it, he looked at his friends up the slope and took off the black hat and waved it

Hunter pointed the momentum pistol at hiht and his upstretched hand too, but the black hat ca back over the lip, and a chill breeze with it

McHeath threw hie with foot, knee, elbow, and hand, and peered over

The slope vibrated faintly underfoot and the big crash came hollowly

The chill breeze quickened The black hat sailed straight at Hunter and hung itself on the muzzle of the momentum pistol A small boulder started to roll uphill after it Hunter nipped his finger off the button and bowed his head The small boulder reversed course and rolled down the slope, clinking

McHeath called hoarsely, his voice cracking halfway through: "He&039;s gone He was thrown out I saw him hit Then the bus rolled over him"

Hunter said: "Just one second sooner"