"Since last I was here, O Holly," she called, "the support of the moving stone hath lessened somewhat, so that I am not sure if it will bear our weight and fall or not.Therefore will I cross first, because no harm will come unto me," and, without further ado, she trod lightly but firmly across the frail bridge, and in another second was standing safe upon the heaving stone.
"It is safe," she called."See, hold thou the plank! Iwill stand on the farther side of the stone so that it may not overbalance with your greater weights.Now come, O Holly, for presently the light will fail us."I struggled to my knees, and if ever I felt sick in my life I felt sick then, and I am not ashamed to say that I hesitated and hung back.
"Surely thou art not afraid," called this strange creature in a lull of the gale, from where she stood, poised like a bird on the highest point of the rocking stone."Make then way for Kallikrates."This settled me; it is better to fall down a precipice and die than to be laughed at by such a woman; so Iclinched my teeth, and in another instant I was on that horrible, narrow, bending plank, with bottomless space beneath and around me.I have always hated a great height, but never before did I realize the full horrors of which such a position is capable.Oh, the sickening sensation of that yielding board resting on the two moving supports.I grew dizzy, and thought that I must fall; my spine crept; it seemed to me that I was falling, and my delight at finding myself sprawling upon that stone, which rose and fell beneath me like a boat in a swell, cannot be expressed in words.All I know is that briefly, but earnestly enough, I thanked Providence for preserving me so far.