Read Online Margaret St. Clair by The Dolphins of Altair - Free Book Online

Amtor was trying to get in touch with me, I heard words. But when I saw the mine exploding, I did see a picture. It was a picture on a black background, with the detail done in faint glowing lines, something like a photographic negative.”
    “Do you think the mine and the metal drums really looked like the picture you saw?”
    “No, they wouldn’t have been luminous. I don’t suppose there was any light at all at that depth.
    “You sound like Dr. Lawrence, Sven. He always wants to know how it is when I see things.”
    Sven laughed. “Did you have foreknowledge of it? You were sure we’d need you when we exploded the mine.”
    “I guess so. I’m not trying to be mysterious, Sven. I really don’t know.”
    “How do you feel about the quake? The dolphins seem sure there’s going to be one.”
    “Oh, something is going to happen. I feel anxious a bout it. I said I was happy, but there’s a cloud of fear. Trouble is coming.”
    “And after the trouble?” Sven pressed her.
    “I can’t see that far. But we’re with the sea people. I feel happy now.”
    “I wonder what time it is,” Sven said.
    “About ten,” I told him. “We can tell from the tide.”
    “Out at sea like this?” he said.
    “Oh, yes-s-s. The stars help us, too.”
    Now that we had eaten and rested, we were swimming faster. Madelaine looked up at the sky. “Look, the pointers of the Dipper are pointing s traight down at Polaris. How odd that such an insignificant star should be the pivot of our heavens.”
    “I’ve heard it’s a compound star,” Sven answered.
    “Is it? That must be Vega, coming up in the northeast, but I don’t see Altair. It must be too early for it yet.” She yawned and shivered.
    “Would you like my jacket, Maddy?” Sven said.
    “No, thank you. Being cold helps me to stay awake.”
    About ten-thirty I took Sven on my back to let Djuna rest. He made the transfer awkwardly, and I realized that his joints were stiff with cold.
    Time passed. A little after eleven, Djuna said, “Do you Splits feel any difference in the water on your legs?”
    “No,” Madelaine answered, “but my legs are so cold I doubt I could feel anything. How about you, Sven?”
    “I don’t notice anything. Is it —?”
    “Yes-s,” Djuna answered. “There’s been an earthquake shock.”
    Madelaine let out her breath. “I think we’ve all been waiting for it. Now it’s come. Will there be more shocks?”
    I “Of course. A lot of pressure had built up in the earth.” “I’m sorry we had to do it,” Madelaine said soberly, “but I don’t regret having done it. How about Noonday Rock? Will the quake be felt there?”
    “I don’t think so,” I told her. “It’s not on the San Andreas Rift. There might be heavy wav es sweeping over the Rock. Don’t worry about Dr. Lawrence, Moonlight. If there is any danger, one of our people will have taken the doctor on his back and gone out to open sea with him.”
    “Oh, I’m not worried about him.” She laughed. “The doctor impresses me as a person who would always take good care of himself.”
    From then on, as we swam up the coast, there was a quake every few minutes, and we reported each of them to our passengers. Out at sea as we were, the only gross sign of the series of earthquak es was the choppy surface of the water, but it must have been a night of increasing terror on land.
    About three a drizzling rain began to fall, and Sven made Madelaine, who was shivering violently, take his windbreaker. A little later the moon rose, and the light was a comfort to all of us.
    “I wonder if the concrete walls around the training pools have broken yet?” Madelaine said. “And if they have, did the sea people all manage to get out? You know the spiritual, Sven, about how ‘Joshua fit de battle o f Jericho’? We started an earthquake. Did ‘de walls come a-tumblin’ down’?”
    “We ought to know pretty soon,” Sven said.
    The east began to lighten. The sun was about half above