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Now was his best chance. If a large number of them were out ofthe house, looking at the slide, he had a clearer road out than he had hopedfor.
He spoke into the statuette: "I'll take my di
flooding my
room." "Yes, sir." He waited. He had slipped the statuette between his belt and his
stomach. He poised now, hoping that the pressure of the water would spring thedoor outwards even more swiftly than it normally traveled.
The caving in of the hill front had undoubtedly been the mainfactor in making the house lurch. But the enormous weight of all the water inthis room had helped. Now, if only things worked right.
Suddenly, the door swung out. The water churned and frothed as itplungedthrough the narrow exit.
Childe hesitated several seconds and then he dived. He was caughtby thecurrent and hurled through the doorway, brushing it as he went by andhurtinghis ribs and hips. He struck into the wall on the side of thecorridor oppositethe door and then was shot, turning over and over, helplessy down thehall. The house must have been tilted slightly forward, towards the road, whenit had shifted in response to the cave-in. Most of the flood seemed to becharging inthat direction.
CHAPTER 42
The water fell through the hole in the floor as if it were awaterspout. It pounded the narrow platform, making it shudder and threaten to breakup. Itswirled the raft around so that several men, clinging to the side ofthe raft, were crushed between raft and wall.
Forry, hanging on to another man on the raft, thought that thistime the house had slipped forward after another cave-in. This time, it wasnot going tostop. It would go down the hill, and everybody in it would be buriedunder tons of mud. Especially those in this underground hole!
The worst part of it was that they had removed their air tanksand so could not swim back through the tu
Or could they? It was difficult to think coherently while thewater was roaring through that hole and the raft was spi
But the thought of going through the curving tube when its sidemightcollapse at any second u
By then all the lights had been extinguished, and he was in totaldarkness.
Suddenly, though the raft was still turning, the turbulence wasmuch reduced. A light came on, and he could see another light. This wasshining downthrough the hole in the floor. Water was still coming through but itwas a trickle compared to the first discharge.
Hindarf was shouting at them to be quiet. Miraculously, he wasunhurt.
Under his directions they erected the ladder again, and heclimbed on upthrough it. His men followed him. Presently, a man pushed Forry andurged him toget going. Forry scrambled up the ladder swiftly but reluctantly. Hepoked hishead through the floor and saw a bedroom that had been submerged onlya few minutes before. The only exit was blocked with chairs, tables, andthe bed, which had been swept against the doorway by the current.
The Tocs worked furiously to clear the furniture away. Hindarfand another looked for Childe, but he was not in the room.
"What happened?" Forry said to Hindarf.
"I don't know. But I would guess that Childe or whoever was aprisoner inhere flooded this place. When the door was opened, he went on out, riding thewaters. He may have escaped."
"Good!" said Forry. "Maybe we can leave then?" Hindarf looked down the hall at the wreckage. Several tables andvases and a crumpled carpet were piled at the corner where the hall turned. Partof the wall, where the water had first struck, was broken in. A man with abroken neck lay against the wall. He was identified as Glinch, an Og who had onceterrorized medieval Germany as a werewolf. For the past twenty years, he hadbeen workingin the Internal Revenue Service, Los Angeles.
Hindarf gave direct orders. Part of the Tocs were to go down thathall, looking for whatever they could find in the way of Childe, the Tocprisoners, and the Grail. He, Ackerman, and the rest of the party would go theother direction.
As they split up, they were hurled off their feet by anothershock. Somewhere in the house, a great splintering and crashing sounded.
"We may not have much time left!" Hindarf said. "Quickly!"
They broke in a door which was jammed because of the twistedwalls. Theyfound the three Tocs, naked, hungry, and scared, in that room. Thenext room contained Vivie
"So somebody killed Gilles de Rais at last?" Hindarf said. "Childe did it," Vivie
savage yankon the thing between her legs. What happened next was something that Forry would never be ableto forget.
Hindarf picked up the many-legged cunt and smashed it against thewall. "Here's something for your collection," he said, handing the headwith its kicking legs to Forry by the hair. Forry backed away and then ran outof the room.
There were shouts and then shots and screams somewhere in the house. Hindarf pushed past him and ran down the hall. Forry followed the others andeventuallyentered an enormous room where about twelve Tocs were struggling withten Ogs. In the middle of the battle was a glass cube with a dully glowinggray goblet ona pedestal.
A Toc shoved the cube over with his foot, and the enclosure fellwith a crash, taking the pedestal and the goblet with it. There was adesperatescramble, during which the floor suddenly tilted with a deafeningcrash and rending of timbers from nearby. The cube slid down to one end of theroom while the combatants, knocked off their feet, chuted after it.
Forry was knocked down and sent sliding on his face for perhapsten feet. He suffered friction burns on his hands and knees, but he did not noticethem at that moment. The goblet had tumbled out of the cube and come to resta foot before his face.
"Get it and run!" Hindarf yelled, and then an Og woman, whom herecognizedas Panchita Pocyotl, leaped upon Hindarf from behind and bore him tothe floor.
Forry would not have touched the goblet if he had thought aboutthe effects of his act. But, excited and impelled by the Toc's order, hescrambled to his feet, scooping the goblet up. Even in his frenzied state, he noticedthat it felt extraordinarily warm and that it seemed to pulse faintly. Healso felt a resurgence of energy and an onslaught of courage.
He ran, even though he was not supposed to run. He went out ofthe room and down the hall and then there was a terrible grinding noise, agroaning, ashrieking, and a rumble as of thunder. The floor dropped; he fell, though stillholding the goblet.
The room seemed to turn upside down. He struck the ceiling, whichcracked open before he hit it. The lights had gone out then, but a flashlightfrom somewhere, maybe held by an Og who, had just entered the house, threwa beam on the goblet and the surrounding area.
Half-stu