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.And as thatfaded, another sound emerged."Oooh!" said Joanna, in something between a shout and a shriek.It was arumbling, creaking, crashing sound of boulders being swept along by theoverpowering surge of flash waters rushing down-slope.With the sound came thesight of the slot-bottom stream abruptly rising, spreading, sweeping alongwith it the variety of leaves, twigs, assorted debris the bottom had collectedin the years since the last "male rain" downpour had settled over this sectionof the Coconino Plateau and sent untold tons of water pouring off the rockysurface into the canyon.Bernie had expected this, but in a more gradual and less violent form, and hadPage 108ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmldecided what she had to do when it happened.Chandler had not waited for a plan to reveal itself.He was running down theslot, splashing along the edge of the stream against the cliff.Looking for aplace to climb, she guessed, or hoping to reach the exit where the slot wouldpour its water into the canyon.He was clutching his diamond-filled socks ashe ran.Bernie grabbed Joanna Craig's arm."Come on!" she shouted."I know a placewe'll be safe."Saying it, Bernie was wishing she felt as confident as she tried to sound.Theplace she had in mind was the basalt shelf where the Skeleton Man had made hisbed.He must have known the canyon, perched there to be safe from such flashfloods.And coming in here, she had noticed on the walls of the slot how highflood debris had been deposited by previous floods.Maybe the Skeleton Man'sshelf wasn't totally safe, but it would be safer than here.And Joanna Craig seemed to trust her.She was following, splashing along withthe rushing water.Knee-deep now, it was pushing them along, hurrying them,trying to sweep their feet off the bottom.And then they were at the edge ofthe sloping shelf.Bernie pulled herself onto it, feeling as she did the water sweeping her feetout of its way, helping Joanna pull herself up, then helping her hoist theman's bright yellow backpack up with her.They sat for a moment, regaining their breath."Why did you save that?" Bernie asked, tapping the wet backpack.Joanna Craig unzipped it, reached in, extracted the arm bone, showed it toBernie.Smiling."This is what I came here for," she said, and Bernie could tell she wascrying."Now I can prove I'm my father's daughter."27The first time he had been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Jim Chee hadthought of the Colorado River system as a sort of reverse copy of a humanvascular arrangement, with the Colorado being the artery and the scores ofsmaller canyons leading down into it the capillaries.Gravity made it all workbackward, of course.The little gullies and arroyos collected water from allover the Kaibab and Coconino plateaus to feed their area streams across theimmense Colorado Plateau.Then these creeks and rivers poured it down into theColorado a mile or more below.Having seen the velocity that gravity gave thetorrents coming off the lava mesas in northern New Mexico, he guessed he'dfind runoff into the Grand Canyon (with ten times more gravity behind it)absolutely spectacular.He was right.Chee was huddled into a modest overhang at the cliff where the canyon he'dfollowed from the big river was joined by runoff pouring out of a small slot.He was wet to the skin from the pounding rain-mixed now and then with bits ofhail.He was also scratched and bruised from a futile attempt to buck therunoff from the smaller stream.The racing water had knocked him out of theway and deposited him, half drowned, beside the cliff where he now stood.Andthat stream was puny compared to the roaring runoff it was joining.Page 109ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe was as certain as the situation allowed that the slot he'd tried to enterwas the one into which Bernie had disappeared.She and whoever she was withmust be in that slot now.Maybe they were already drowning.If they drowned,they would wash out here.He had already seen part of a wooden bucket flash byon the flood.Now came what looked like some sort of cloth and what might have been a soggyhat.Behind that, bobbing and turning, came what seemed to be a dried andterribly emaciated corpse.It was clad in a torn blue shirt and ragged denimpants.The hair plastered to the skull was white and the body was so wastedthat the bones pressed against the skin.The torrent quickly swept it past todisappear in the foam where the stream pouring out of the slot joined the muchlarger main canyon flood."Skeleton Man," Chee said.Well, they had finally found him.Or Bernie hadfound him.And all he could do about her being up there in the slot, and indanger, was wait and worry until the flood subsided.The water pouring out of the slot, and the flood racing down the canyon,produced a roaring bedlam made even more deafening by the echoes bouncing offthe cliffs.But suddenly Chee heard what seemed to be a yell.Brief, andsuddenly choked off.A moment later a man shot out of the slot, head out of the water, trying toswim.Chee jumped to his feet, scrambled away from the wall and down the slopetoward the flood.The man grabbed at the branches of cat's claw acacia he was being swept past,managed to catch a branch, held on.The force of the water swept his legsdownstream.He was on his back now, seeing Chee."Help!" he screamed."Help me!""Coming," Chee shouted."Hold on."The man was holding on only with his left hand, clutching what seemed to be asort of rope in the other."Use both hands!" Chee yelled."I'll wade in as far as I can.When I get closeenough, you push off and I'll try to catch you."The man looked at Chee, expression desperate, tried to say something,couldn't.Then he swung his right arm, trying for a hold on another limb.Therope he was holding swung upward, caught in the brambles.The man grabbed atit.Trying to pull himself up, Chee thought.Impossible.The brush wouldn't holdhis weight [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]