The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eternal Wall, by Raymond Zinke Gallun

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Title: The Eternal Wall

Author: Raymond Zinke Gallun

Release Date: October 31, 2008 [EBook #27110]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE
ETERNAL
WALL

By RAYMOND Z. GALLUN

_A scream of brakes, the splash
into icy waters, a long descent
into alkaline depths ... it was
death. But Ned Vince lived
again--a million years later!_

"See you in half an hour, Betty," said Ned Vince over the party
telephone. "We'll be out at the Silver Basket before ten-thirty...."

Ned Vince was eager for the company of the girl he loved. That was why
he was in a hurry to get to the neighboring town of Hurley, where she
lived. His old car rattled and roared as he swung it recklessly around
Pit Bend.

There was where Death tapped him on the shoulder. Another car leaped
suddenly into view, its lights glaring blindingly past a high,
up-jutting mass of Jurassic rock at the turn of the road.

Dazzled, and befuddled by his own rash speed, Ned Vince had only swift
young reflexes to rely on to avoid a fearful, telescoping collision. He
flicked his wheel smoothly to the right; but the County Highway
Commission hadn't yet tarred the traffic-loosened gravel at the Bend.

[Illustration: An incredible science, millions of years old, lay in the
minds of these creatures.]

Ned could scarcely have chosen a worse place to start sliding and
spinning. His car hit the white-painted wooden rail sideways, crashed
through, tumbled down a steep slope, struck a huge boulder, bounced up a
little, and arced outward, falling as gracefully as a swan-diver toward
the inky waters of the Pit, fifty feet beneath....

Ned Vince was still dimly conscious when that black, quiet pool geysered
around him in a mighty splash. He had only a dazing welt on his
forehead, and a gag of terror in his throat.

Movement was slower now, as he began to sink, trapped inside his wrecked
car. Nothing that he could imagine cou