By the Falls
BY THE FALLS
Harry Harrison
It was the rich damp grass, slippery as soap, covering the path, that caused .Carter to keep slipping and falling, not the steepness of the hill. The front of his raincoat was wet ‘and his knees were muddy long before be reached the summit. And with each step forward and upward the continuous roar of sound grew louder. He was hot and tired by the time he reached the top of the ridge—yet he instantly forgot his discomfort as he looked out across the wide bay.
Like everyone else he had heard about The Falls since childhood ‘and had seen countless photographs and films of them ‘on television. AU this preparation had not readied him for the impact of reality.
He saw a falling ocean, a vertical river—how many millions of gallons a second did people say came down?
The Falls stretched out across the bay, their farthest reaches obscured by the clouds of floating spray. The ‘bay seethed and boiled with the impact of that falling weight, raising foam-capped waves that crashed against the rocks below. Carter could feel the impact of the water on the solid ‘stone as a vibration in ~he ground but all sound was swallowed up in the greater roar of The Falls. This was a reverberation so outrageous and overpowering that his ears could not become accustomed to it. They soon felt numbed from the ceaseless impact but the very bones of the skull carried the sound to his brain, shivering and battering it. When he put his bands over ‘his ears he was horrified to discover that The Falls were still as loud as ever. As he stood swaying and wide-eyed one of the con-stantly changing air currents that formed ‘about the base of The Falls shifted suddenly and swept a wall of spray down upon him. The inundation lasted scant seconds but was heavier than any rainfall he bad ever experienced, had ever believed possible. When it passed he was gasping for air, so dense had been the falling water.
Quivering with sensations he had never before experienced, Canter turned and looked along the ridge toward the gray and waiter-blackened granite of the cliff and the house that huddled at its base like a stony blister. It was built of the same granite as the cliff and appeared no less solid. Running and slipping, ‘his hands still over ‘his ears, Carter hurried toward the house.
For a short ‘time the spray was blown across the bay and out to sea, so that golden afternoon sunlight poured down ‘on the house, starting streamers of vapor from its sharply sloping roof. It was a no-nonsense building, as solid as the rock against which it pressed. Only two windows penetrated the blankness of ‘the front that faced The Falls—tiny and deep, they were like little suspicious eyes. No door existed here but Carter saw that a path of stone flags led around the corner.
He followed it and found set into the wall ‘on the far side, away from The Falls—a small and deep-set entry. It had no arch but was shielded by a great stone lintel a good two feet in diameter. Carter stepped into the opening that framed the door and looked in vain for a knocker on the heavy, iron-bolted timbers. The unceasing, world-filling, thunder of The Falls made thinking almost impos-sible and it was only after he had pressed uselessly against the sealed portal that he realized that no knocker, even one ‘as loud as cannon, could be heard within ‘these walls above that sound. He lowered his bands and tried to force his mind to coherence.
There had to be some way of announcing his presence.
When be stepped back out of ‘the alcove he noticed that a rusty iron knob was set into the wall a few feet away.
He seized and twisted it but it would not turn. However, when he pulled on it, although it resisted, ‘he was able to draw it slowly away from the wall to disclose a length of chain. The chain was heavily greased and in good conditional fair omen. He continued to pull until a yard of chain emerged from the opening and then, no matter how hard he pulled, no more would come. He released the handle and it bounced against the rough stone of the wall. For some instants it hung there. Then with a jerky mechanical motion, the chain was drawn back into the wall until the knob once more rested in place.