The wall of water, curling as it came, swept nearer; then suddenly it broke with a noise like thunder, and, with a great swirl and rush, the water was over the bridge in a whirl, was spreading far and wide, was about their feet.
"Run!" Gabrielle shouted again, as a second great surge brought the water washing against their knees. And run they did, through a world that seemed all water, as far as the eye could reach.
No one who was at Redlands then, least of all those three friends, will ever forget that wild 31st of October, when the old sea-wall went down, and the highest tide that men had known for thirty years burst in upon the Deeps of Little Holland!
CHAPTER XXI
In the Round Tower
There are white posts set at intervals along the fen roads to guide travellers in the dark. A necessary precaution as the roads are often ditch-bordered, and for half the year those ditches brim.
The posts are barely two feet in height; by the time the girls had reached the spot where John had left them, only the tops of those posts were left uncovered; the tide was plainly driving in with terrific force, and wherever they looked they saw nothing but the waste of tossing water.
Not one of the three would have owned to being frightened, and it was in quite a cheerful voice that Noreen put their worst danger into words.
"Hurry up, you two. We must get somewhere before the posts cover, or we shan't be able to find the road."