"Aldiss, Brian - There is a Tide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aldiss Brian W)

green behind him. Something caught my eye.
Above some yards of bare rock, a hundred feet up the
slope of the mountain, two magnificent MvulesAfrican
teak treesgrew. A china-blue bird dipped suddenly from
one of the trees and sped far and fast away over the water,
fighting to outpace its reflection. And the tree itself began
to cant slowly from the vertical into a horizontal position.
Jubal had binoculars round his neck. My curiosity aroused,
I reached to borrow them. Even as I did so, I saw a spring of
water start from the base of the Mvules. A rock was dis-
lodged. I saw it hurtle down into the bush below, starting in
turn a trail of earth and stones which fell down almost on to
the thatched roofs of the village. The spring began to spurt
more freely now. It gleamed in the sun: it looked beautiful
but I was alarmed.
"Look!" I pointed.
Both Jubal and the fisherman followed the line of my out-
stretched arm. J-Casta continued to bend over his metal box.
Even as I pointed, the cliff shuddered. The other Mvule went
down. Like an envelope being torn, the rock split horizon-
tally and a tongue of water burst from it. The split widened,
the water became a wall, pouring out and down.
The sound of the splitting came clear and hard to our startled
ears. Then came the roar of the water, bursting down the hill-
side. It washed everything before it. I saw trees, bushes and
boulders hurried down in it. I saw the original fissure lengthen
and lengthen like a cruel smile, cutting through the ground as
fast as fire. Other cracks started, running uphill and across:
every one of them began to spout water.
The fishermen stood up, shouting as their homes were swept
away by the first fury of the flood.
And then the entire lower mountainside began to slip. With
a cumulative roar, mud, water and rock rolled down into the
lake. Where they had been, a solid torrent cascaded out, one
mighty wall of angry water. The escaping 'flow from Lake
Victoria had found its outlet!
Next moment, our calm surface was a furious sea. Jubal
slipped and fell on to one knee. I grabbed him, and almost
went overboard myself. A series of giant waves plunged out-
wards from the shore. "The first one rocked us, the second one
overturned our flimsy craft completely.
I came to the surface coughing and snorting. J-Casta rose at
my side. We were just in time to see the float slip completely
under; it sank in no time, carrying the pilot with it. I had
not even seen his face, poor fellow.
Jubal came up by the fisherman, who had also overturned.
But dugouts do not sink. We owed our lives to those hollowed
tree trunks. They were righted, and Jubal and his henchman
climbed into one, while I climbed into the other. The waves
were still fierce, but had attained a sort of regularity which