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She gave hiht on all counts except the raft part”

“What?”

“After I pulled you in, I beached us I’m not sure where we are”

“You navigated through the rest of the spires? Heck, you should have been driving the whole time”

“Dumb luck and desperation”

“Sounds like a good name for a boat How is it, by the way? The raft, I mean”

“No leaks that I could find We’re still seaworthy”

“What time is it?”

“Just aftera look around?”

More reh the spires without suffering so much as a scratch was that she’d found the patch of shale beach on which the raft now rested Measuring no more than ten feet deep and twenty feet wide, the beach narrowed in both directions to stone paths no more than two feet wide

Once Sam was on his feet and had shaken out the cobwebs, they first set out to the south, but found the way blocked by a rock wall after only a few hundred yards To the north they fared better, walking al across a rickety wooden stairway set into the cliff They climbed to the top and looked around

Here, high above the ocean’s surface, the brisk wind had driven the fog away, but far below, the ocean was still shrouded in s Sam said, “Well, you either headed farther south of the estate or past it to the north How long was it until you found the beach?”

“Twenty minutes But I made several loops, I’m sure, so don’t count on that”

“Hoas the current?”

“For the most part, choppy and almost dead on the bow”