I Glanced At Charmian, And The Way She Walked Made Me Sad.
The Wharf Had All The Seeming Of A Ship's Deck.
It lifted, tilted,
heaved and sank; and since there were no handrails on it, it kept
Charmian and me busy avoiding falling in.
I never saw such a
preposterous little wharf. Whenever I watched it closely, it
refused to roll; but as soon as I took my attention off from it,
away it went, just like the Snark. Once, I caught it in the act,
just as it upended, and I looked down the length of it for two
hundred feet, and for all the world it was like the deck of a ship
ducking into a huge head-sea.
At last, however, supported by our hosts, we negotiated the wharf
and gained the land. But the land was no better. The very first
thing it did was to tilt up on one side, and far as the eye could
see I watched it tilt, clear to its jagged, volcanic backbone, and I
saw the clouds above tilt, too. This was no stable, firm-founded
land, else it would not cut such capers. It was like all the rest
of our landfall, unreal. It was a dream. At any moment, like
shifting vapour, it might dissolve away. The thought entered my
head that perhaps it was my fault, that my head was swimming or that
something I had eaten had disagreed with me. But I glanced at
Charmian and her sad walk, and even as I glanced I saw her stagger
and bump into the yachtsman by whose side she walked.
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