Paddle had ridden rapids. There had been his first brook, back in the forest, wild enough for its size. Then he had ridden the mad river, and seen the rapids at The Soo, so fierce that ships went around them. But these rapids! Thirty-foot waves rushed like shooting stars, turning inside-out at every jump. Paddle flew up on a chain of wet volcanoes, plunged deep in submarine dives, and took sudden trips toward the moon in green rockets.