They spoke together. Then they spoke in Leela's language. Leela
murmured to Frannie, "This man Degg is to remain here until we are
safely above."
Rokk issued his commands. Degg sat down again in the water, waist-deep,
with his arms holding his hunched-up knees. He yawned and waved his
hand as Rokk swam his dhrane away.
Again in single file, they swam. As they passed the buildings Frannie
chanced to glance up. On the porch-like platform up there she caught
a glimpse of a green-white shape--a thing stretched out somnolent--a
thing, headless!
It was only a glimpse. Frannie's swimming dhrane carried her beyond
sight of it. . . . She was shuddering.
The water now was unpleasantly hot. The current was strong. It was
beginning to ripple the water. Ugly, white ripples . . . sinister.
The dhranes swam with the moving water. But they tossed their heads,
uneasy. . . . Rokk was continually shouting, forcing his mount forward.
There were no houses here. The cliff-face was moving swiftly past. And
then a black mouth swept into view. A hundred feet high and twice as
broad. A mouth, with steam like the fetid breath of a monster. . . .
The water was sweeping that way. Surging in a torrent. White water,
leaping over jagged rock-points that split it into foam. . . .
And from the mouth came a sullen roaring. . . .
Frannie's dhrane lifted its head with a sharp bleat of fear. Its body
was swung sidewise by the tumbling water, but it recovered and swam
desperately.
The roaring rose to a deafening torrent of sound. White water was
leaping everywhere. Frannie half closed her eyes; she could see a
whirling blob which was Leela ahead of her. Then the black mouth opened
to encompass the world as Frannie was swept into it.
An inferno of roaring blackness. . . .
_CHAPTER 5_