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Show 26 The strip of water, dark as oil in the twilight, narrowed; the waves crashed onto the lava, sprang high onto the cliff and then, boiling and sucking, swept back. "Watch out!" Rising and sidling as if on skis, the stern swept inward. "Hit it!" Parker and Asano moved back and braced the pole, and as the boat came down gave a quick shova forward. Jennings and Koontz, at the bow, waited, but the wave coursed through a channel, held for a moment and then, forcing the boat back slightly, broke and sent its spray against the cliffs. A thousand rivulets coursed back down, and with a great sighing the water subsided, carrying the boat a few feet farther out where it hung, waiting for tha next blow. "Yatteta!" cried Furukawa, and there came a sputter as he triad to start the engine. The cough died away, started once more, and in a moment caught on. It was running. But before the propeller took hold the next wave struck. It came from an angle, and spinning the stern out forced thB bow shoreward. Looking up for a moment Sid caught his breath: above him stood a cluster of rocks like a vast gnarled fist: seaweed and broken timbers filled the gaps as if dredged up from a subterranean shipwreck. "Forward!" Sid shouted. "We'll hit!" Again there came the sickening sideward dance. The ferry rose into the air, flirted with the lava fist, hung above it r poised. Parker and Asano ran up, and in a moment the aery |