登陆注册
15421100000019

第19章 THE FIRST LANDFALL(3)

Charmian reached out her hand and clung to me--for support against the ineffable beauty of it, thought I.But no.As I supported her I braced my legs, while the flowers and lawns reeled and swung around me.It was like an earthquake, only it quickly passed without doing any harm.It was fairly difficult to catch the land playing these tricks.As long as I kept my mind on it, nothing happened.But as soon as my attention was distracted, away it went, the whole panorama, swinging and heaving and tilting at all sorts of angles.Once, however, I turned my head suddenly and caught that stately line of royal palms swinging in a great arc across the sky.

But it stopped, just as soon as I caught it, and became a placid dream again.

Next we came to a house of coolness, with great sweeping veranda, where lotus-eaters might dwell.Windows and doors were wide open to the breeze, and the songs and fragrances blew lazily in and out.

The walls were hung with tapa-cloths.Couches with grass-woven covers invited everywhere, and there was a grand piano, that played, I was sure, nothing more exciting than lullabies.Servants--Japanese maids in native costume--drifted around and about, noiselessly, like butterflies.Everything was preternaturally cool.

Here was no blazing down of a tropic sun upon an unshrinking sea.

It was too good to be true.But it was not real.It was a dream-dwelling.I knew, for I turned suddenly and caught the grand piano cavorting in a spacious corner of the room.I did not say anything, for just then we were being received by a gracious woman, a beautiful Madonna, clad in flowing white and shod with sandals, who greeted us as though she had known us always.

We sat at table on the lotus-eating veranda, served by the butterfly maids, and ate strange foods and partook of a nectar called poi.

But the dream threatened to dissolve.It shimmered and trembled like an iridescent bubble about to break.I was just glancing out at the green grass and stately trees and blossoms of hibiscus, when suddenly I felt the table move.The table, and the Madonna across from me, and the veranda of the lotus-eaters, the scarlet hibiscus, the greensward and the trees--all lifted and tilted before my eyes, and heaved and sank down into the trough of a monstrous sea.Igripped my chair convulsively and held on.I had a feeling that Iwas holding on to the dream as well as the chair.I should not have been surprised had the sea rushed in and drowned all that fairyland and had I found myself at the wheel of the Snark just looking up casually from the study of logarithms.But the dream persisted.Ilooked covertly at the Madonna and her husband.They evidenced no perturbation.The dishes had not moved upon the table.The hibiscus and trees and grass were still there.Nothing had changed.

I partook of more nectar, and the dream was more real than ever.

"Will you have some iced tea?" asked the Madonna; and then her side of the table sank down gently and I said yes to her at an angle of forty-five degrees.

"Speaking of sharks," said her husband, "up at Niihau there was a man--" And at that moment the table lifted and heaved, and I gazed upward at him at an angle of forty-five degrees.

So the luncheon went on, and I was glad that I did not have to bear the affliction of watching Charmian walk.Suddenly, however, a mysterious word of fear broke from the lips of the lotus-eaters.

"Ah, ah," thought I, "now the dream goes glimmering." I clutched the chair desperately, resolved to drag back to the reality of the Snark some tangible vestige of this lotus land.I felt the whole dream lurching and pulling to be gone.Just then the mysterious word of fear was repeated.It sounded like REPORTERS.I looked and saw three of them coming across the lawn.Oh, blessed reporters!

Then the dream was indisputably real after all.I glanced out across the shining water and saw the Snark at anchor, and Iremembered that I had sailed in her from San Francisco to Hawaii, and that this was Pearl Harbour, and that even then I was acknowledging introductions and saying, in reply to the first question, "Yes, we had delightful weather all the way down."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 斗战霸魔

    斗战霸魔

    一句谎言,一世战争,涂炭何止千万?神灵降世,天柱封魔,换来万载千秋。霸魔再现,神魔哀伤,一怒天柱崩塌!凝霸骨,修金身,善恶只存一念!因为魔眼,他饱受世间冷眼,因为战争,家族从此一蹶不振。一个神秘石印,一个平凡少年,一段不平凡的人生..PS:新书期一天五更!
  • 神鬼道

    神鬼道

    人们常说,人鬼殊途,但一个半人半鬼之躯的少年,却执意要学习神术,他到底是否能突破这个界限!
  • 职工工作准则

    职工工作准则

    企业职工的工作与生存质量关系着企业的经济质量、安全质量、产品质量和服务质量等,是企业质量的直接体现与有效保证。
  • 樱兰贵族学院:皇室公主

    樱兰贵族学院:皇室公主

    我认为作品介绍没用,所以就不写了。第一次写书,请多关照,谢谢。
  • 焚灭地域

    焚灭地域

    偏僻的小镇,在一次地震中被毁。数千人丧命。从小生长在小镇中的墨临空也没能避免,在他闭眼长眠的那一刻,猛然间打了一个激灵,醒来发现自己来到了亡灵世界。在这个没有火焰的亡灵世界里,墨临空意外发现自己的体内,寄宿着一只火灵。亡灵世界,哪怕强者万千,却也惧怕火焰之力。于是只有劣等修行资质的墨临空在这等级分明,强者为尊的世界里,强化火灵,征战大陆,碾压诸强,直至执掌天地,焚灭地域!
  • 神魔寄生

    神魔寄生

    林想,一个原本的书生少年,在右手与神秘的寄生生物融合之后,便是不得不与天斗,与人斗,只为了能够寻找足够多的食物,来养活呆在自己体内的这个怪物。灵药?吃!于是林想成为了炼丹大师!妖丹?吃!于是妖兽皆是丧命林想脚下!人族武者?也吃!于是林想踏上一条自己的杀戮之道!寄生,吞噬,进化,然漫漫武道长路,并非只有右手作伴....有兴趣的读者可加群232061092
  • 神棍出没,请注意

    神棍出没,请注意

    穿越的方式有很多,有快死掉就穿越的,有逛逛菜市场就穿越的,有睡觉睡着睡着就穿越的,甚至还有大姨妈一来就穿越的!但是,为毛线我去小卖部买了个打火机玩玩就穿越了啊!没错,虽然我手贱,但是我才不要穿越到古代啊!古代连姨妈巾都木有啊!穿越了......
  • 天穹御道

    天穹御道

    灵穹大陆,一个充满灵之气的奇异大陆,万物皆以灵力作为自己修炼之道。而在灵气鼎盛的这片大陆又孕育出诸多种族,从而诞生出许多令人敬仰的绝世强者。而小小少年秦子枫在复杂的身世下又能怎样造就属于他的传奇...
  • 腹黑殿下溺宠小丫头

    腹黑殿下溺宠小丫头

    “唔...小丫头,真可爱!”“本帅哪可爱了?!你才可爱。你全小区都可爱!”“丫头==。我们小区只有我们一家别墅哦。”“丫头,我喜欢你诶--”“抱歉!我、不、喜、欢、你!”“=没事...我有的是时间跟你耗=”“我、我、我有、有木有跟、你讲过我、我喜欢你?”“啥?丫头,大声点。”“好吧==我、我喜欢你!”
  • 世缘姻梦

    世缘姻梦

    年轻靓丽的林婧,有能力、有热情。自在职场混了两年之后,她一直期待着自己的婚姻能够修成正果。与他自己爱的人能够安稳下来一起享受这二人世界的恋爱时光,可是现实中的残酷就是那么忽然,或者突然,在到茫然已去·····和林婧生活在这个背景下的还有他们的“朋友”:白琳、文璐、苏可、杨阳,刘晓明等。他们这些80后的事业在一路磕磕绊绊的走过来,在社会上揭开着爱情苦酸的真谛。有时候觉就像做梦似的结了婚,偶然的事件却黑白分明觉得这真的不是他们想要的生活·······