Ann, lithe and supple though she was,
staggered uncertainly in the effort to retain her balance, her feet sinking
deep into the shifting sand, as she turned to wave a reassuring hand to the
solitary watcher on the beach.
And then it happened--the thing which Cara had foreseen must almost
inevitably ensue. She had a momentary glimpse of the slim naiad figure
swaying against a background of sea and sky, then a terrific wave towered
up behind it, blotting out the horizon and seeming for an instant to stand
poised, smooth and perpendicular like a solid wall of green glass. She saw
Ann's face change swiftly as she realised her danger, the upward fling
of her arms as she tried to spring to the surface in an effort to escape
the full force of the wave and be carried in on its crest. But it was too
late. With a crash like gun-thunder the huge billow broke, and to Cara's
straining eyes it seemed that Ann's light form was snatched up as though
of no more moment than a floating straw and buried beneath a seething,
tumbling avalanche of waters.
She sprang to her feet and ran towards the water, shrieking for help as
she ran. But the noise of the sea drowned her cries so that neither Robin
nor Tony, still dressing in one of the tents, heard anything amiss.
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