os, Burmans, Annamites, Cambodians, Malays,
Chinese--journeying, God knows why, to ports whose very names I had
never before heard. They lay so thick beneath the awnings that the
sailors literally had to walk upon them in order to perform their work.
From the glassy surface of the Gulf the heat rose in waves--blasts from
an opened furnace door. The flaming ball of molten brass that was the
sun beat down upon the crowded decks until they were as hot to the
touch as a railway station stove at white heat. The odors of crude,
sugar, copra, tobacco, engine oil, perspiration and fish frying in the
galley mingled in a stench that rose to heaven. In the sweat-box which
had been allotted to me, called by courtesy a cabin, a large gray
ship's rat gnawed industriously at my suit-case in an endeavor to
ascertain what it contained; insects that shall be nameless disported
themselves upon the dubious-looking blanket which formed the only
covering of the bed; cockroaches of incredible size used the wash-basin
as a public swimming-pool.

The other cabin passengers were all three Anglo-Saxons--a young
Englishman and an American missionary and his wife. These last, I
found, were convoying a flock of noisy Siamese youngsters, pupils at an
American school in Bangkok, to a small bathing resort at the mouth of
the Menam, where, it was alleged, the mercury had been known to drop as
low as 90 on cold days. Because of its invigorating climate it is a
favorite hot weather resort for the well-to-do Siamese. Here, in a
bungalow that had been placed at their disposal by the King, the
missionary and his charges proposed to spend a glorious fortnight away
from the city's heat. Now do not draw a mental picture of a
sanctimonious person with a Prince Albert coat, a white bow tie and a
prominent Adam's apple. He was not that sort of a missionary at all. On
the contrary, he was a very human, high-spirited, likeable fellow of
the type that at home would be a Scout Master or in France would have
made good as a welfare worker with the A. E. F. Once, when a
particularly obstreperous youngster drew an over-draft on his stock of
patience, he endorsed his disapproval with an extremely vigorous
"_Damn!_" I took to him from that moment.

When, their energy temporarily exhausted, his charges had fallen asleep
upon the deck and pandemonium had given place to peace, he told me
something of his story. For four years he had labored in the Vineyard
of the Lord in Chi