ered about
interminably, now stumbling over some inanimate object, now forcibly
encountering some living obstacle such as another bewildered shipmate or
stewardess. To be upon the safe side, I made a point of murmuring, "I
beg your pardon," at the moment of each collision and then proceeding
onward. It seemed to me that hours had passed, although I presume the
passage of time was really of much shorter duration than that, before I
came opposite a stateroom door bearing upon its panels the sign _C-34_.

Much to my joy the key was in the lock, as I ascertained by feeling, and
the door itself stood ajar slightly. Without further ado I pushed into
the narrow confines of the room, but even as I crossed the threshold was
halted by a voice, speaking in thickened accents. By elevating my head
and stretching my neck to its uttermost length, my chin meanwhile
resting upon the top tier or layer of my belongings, I was able to
perceive the form of a large male, in a recumbent attitude upon a berth
with his face turned from me.

"All ri'," came the voice, which seemed to be muffled in the pillows,
"all ri', steward, set 'em down anywhere!"

"Sit what down?" I enquired, at a loss to grasp his meaning.

"Why, the drinks, of course," quoth the other.

At the risk of dropping some of my luggage, I drew myself up to my full
height.

"Sir," I said, "I do not drink--I have never touched strong drink in all
my life."

"Is it pozz'ble?" said this person (I endeavour for the sake of accuracy
to reproduce his exact phrasing). "Why, what've you been doin' with your
spare time all thesh years?"

He raised a face, red and swollen, and peered at me in seeming
astonishment. I now apprehended that he was a victim of over-indulgence.
So intensely was I shocked that I could but stare back at him, without
speaking.

"Well," he continued, "it's never too late to learn--that's one
con--conso--consolach----" Plainly the word he strove to utter was the
noun _consolation_.

In a flash it came to me that be the consequences what they might, I
could not endure to share the cribbed and cabined quarters provided
aboard ship with a person of such habits and such trend of thought as
this person so patently betrayed. Nor was it necessary. For, having quit
his presence without further parley, I deposited a part of my burden in
a nearby cross-hall and examined my ticket. By so doing I re-established
a fact which in the stress of the prevalent excitement