time can pass.
Ten minutes later the sand-bridge is a broad road. Ten later, and all
Tenby might cross in a crowd. There is an iron staircase built up the
rocky face of the islet, winding about among its crags and fissures,
and the isle is overrun with people during the time the tide is out.
It has many attractions. The view is grand from those heights. Yawning
gulfs fascinate you to look dizzily down into the secret heart of the
isle. On the highest point of rock stood, a few years ago, an ancient
chapel which had in Roman Catholic days been dedicated to St.
Catharine. Within the past six years this chapel has given way to a
fortress, its walls partly embedded in the solid rock. The people who
throng to the islet between tides roam about, loiter with breeze-blown
garments on the stairs and landings, peer into the fortress, or,
perching themselves in the sheltered nooks which are innumerable among
the crags, sit and sew, read, chat, make love and watch the pygmy
bathers in the sea far down below. As long as the tide is low the
tenants of the islet are safe to remain, but as soon as it turns those
who are wise begin to gather up their things and clear out. Now
and then incautious ones get caught; and then there are screaming,
hurrying and a terrible fright, especially if the trapped ones are of
the gentler sex, and still more especially if their proportions are
ample. Such women are, as a rule, the cowardliest. Probably, they feel
their amplitude a disadvantage in moments of peril, and know emotions
which their scrawnier sisters escape. A case in point greets us this
morning as we stand watching the rising of the tide. A roly-poly woman
of forty or so is caught on the islet by the closing of old Ocean's
drawbridge. She is a fair being with dark hair and eyes, a sweet
smile, a clear complexion, and some two hundred and fifty pounds
avoirdupois, richly dressed, pleasant-mannered, and in all respects
no doubt a lady to be admired and loved, as well as respected, in the
social circle. But at present she is at a sad disadvantage. I noticed
her a few minutes ago at the top of the iron staircase, and said to
myself that she would have just time enough to come down, for there
was an isthmus of sand some twenty feet wide as yet to be obliterated
by the crawling tide. A quickly-tripping foot would have accomplished
it, but the fair-fat-and-forty lady occupied one whole minute in
coming down. Now that she has reached the bottom ste