projection of the cliff, the only point on which a landing could be

made, placed the vessel in communication with the land. Dark figures

were crossing and recrossing each other on this tottering gangway, and

in the shadow some people were embarking.

It was less cold in the creek than out at sea, thanks to the screen of

rock rising over the north of the basin, which did not, however, prevent

the people from shivering. They were hurrying. The effect of the

twilight defined the forms as though they had been punched out with a

tool. Certain indentations in their clothes were visible, and showed

that they belonged to the class called in England the ragged.

The twisting of the pathway could be distinguished vaguely in the relief

of the cliff. A girl who lets her stay-lace hang down trailing over the

back of an armchair, describes, without being conscious of it, most of

the paths of cliffs and mountains. The pathway of this creek, full of

knots and angles, almost perpendicular, and better adapted for goats

than men, terminated on the platform where the plank was placed. The

pathways of cliffs ordinarily imply a not very inviting declivity; they

offer themselves less as a road than as a fall; they sink rather than

incline. This one--probably some ramification of a road on the plain

above--was disagreeable to look at, so vertical was it. From underneath

you saw it gain by zigzag the higher layer of the cliff where it passed

out through deep passages on to the high plateau by a cutting in the

rock; and the passengers for whom the vessel was waiting in the creek

must have come by this path.

The Man Who Laughs