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“From that point forward,” Meadows said, “we lose the bottom half of the sewer to water”

Already the water was knee-deep, and the farther the one, the more it had risen Now they were at an impasse From here to the end of the line, the water would be too deep to walk through “Let’s inflate the rafts,” Jones said wearily

Hornsby opened one of the duffle bags and reh-pressure air supply fro, he attached it to a raft and turned the switch The raft unfolded and quickly becaid Two minutes later, Hornsby turned off the inflator

“We need to place the Buddha in one raft,” Hornsby said, “and the three of us in the other”

“Weight problems?” Jones asked

“Each raft can carry a maximum of seven hundred pounds,” Hornsby said “Since none of us weighs under a hundred pounds, he’ll need to ride alone”

Meadoas unpacking the second raft He laid it out and attached the inflator As it was filling with air, he spoke “What do you think?” he asked his partners “Should we let the Buddha lead or follow?”

Hornsby thought for a ht push us into so”

“But if he leads,” Jones said, “we can let go of the lead rope if we get into trouble”

Meadows stared at the rapidly filling pipe just ahead “There will not bewater “I think we’ll all just go with the flow”

“Then he leads,” Hornsby said as he grabbed one end of the Buddha to wrestle it onto the raft, “and we just go along for the ride”

“Hear, hear,” Meadows said

“Makes sense to me,” Jones added

26

“TALBOT?” Spenser said “You’re part of this?”