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Show 27 flirtation began to change: as the sea ebbed tha bow moved toward the rocks. "Brace!" shouted Koontz. Ha and Jennings felt the pole strike. It slid, caught, came loose again; then it snapped into a crevice as into a socket, and stuck. "It's turning!" cried Jennings. "I^can't hold!" The pole was locked in, and bracing themselves against the bulkhead the men threw themselves outward, trying to force it free. They felt the wood strain and creak; Luvu moiiHTU a slit appeared, widening and streaming forward like oil -- in a moment it feathered out beneath their hands. The-n "It's breaking!" <&mmmm*mmmmm& it splintered. Jennings gave a muffled cry, as the broken end threw him onto the railing. The boat tipped; he slid toward the edge, and quickly, with an adroit twist, Koontz dropped the pole and grabbed at his foot. It slipped, ha grasped it again, managed a purchase on the shoe, and Jennings slid toward safety. Then Koontz grasped the stub of the pole once more. The subsiding wave let the boat onto the rocks; there came a crunch; the ferry shuddered violently, and the crash of the wave mingled with screams. Struggling to stand, the men imagined the bow caved in; when they got to thair feat they looked about uncertainly, expecting to be thrown into the sea. Instead, the rocks receded, as Koontz punted with the stub, forcing it against a claw of the rock. By now the engine was throbbing regularly. As the boat |