At the third, which came quite slowly and was the greatest of
them all, the long stand of timber bent its flags toward him as though
in salute, then, with a slow, grinding crash, fell over, entangling
all within it beneath its ruin. Also in the city beyond, houses, whole
streets of them, gabled churches and tall towers, sank to the earth,
while where they had been rose up wreathed columns of dust. To the south
the sea became agitated. Spouts of foam appeared upon its smooth face;
it drew back from the land, revealing the slime of ages and embedded
therein long-forgotten wrecks. It heaped itself up like a mountain,
then, with a swift and dreadful motion, advanced again in one vast wave.
In an instant all that multitude were in full flight.
Hugh and Dick fled like the rest, and with them David, though whither
they went they knew not.
All they knew was that the ground leapt and quivered beneath their feet,
while behind them came the horrible, seething hiss of water on the crest
of which men were tossed up and down like bits of floating wood.
CHAPTER XV
THE DEATH AT WORK
Presently Hugh halted, taking shelter with his two companions behind the
stone wall of a shed that the earthquake had shattered, for here they
could not be trodden down by the mob of fugitives.
"The wave has spent itself," he said, pointing to the line of foam that
now retreated toward the ocean, taking with it many drowned or drowning
men.
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