mast. They rested from Saturday noon
until Monday morning. Now, more than ever, the lot of the engineers
and firemen seemed unacceptable. The blaze, the fierce blue sea, and
a flagging breeze became a routine now. The rains of the Doldrums were
not much in evidence; a short shower, flying over the clay-coloured
water, might come towards evening.

Incidents were few. The sight of the flying-fishes still starting up and
skimming, veering and spurting into a safe distance from the intruder,
was no longer one for my absorbed watch. I woke up, heavy-headed, one
morning to find that Meacock had suspended one of these poor creatures
from my roof; there he hung swaying in the little breeze that there
was, in parched and doleful manner, and ever and anon turning upon me, who
felt much in his condition, his mild and magnificent eye. I threw him out
with sympathy. At night the boobies shrieked round the lights on the
masts, and appeared at morning flying over the water. Once the sleep of
the just was broken by profane language and scuffling in the passage
outside--a rat hunt. Boat drill took its turn one afternoon, the siren
summoning all hands available to their posts. I was questioned about
Colonel Lawrence, at intervals, having seen him in the flesh; and the
publisher of his _Life_ was expected to be named by me. I said that I
believed he himself would write his Memoirs. But this was not the thing.
A book about him by some one who knew how to paint the lily and improve on
possibility was what was sought. I think I could design a satisfactory
coloured cover.

The morning bucket was a transient happiness. To disturb the "gradual
dusky veil" now unescapable, since the bunkers were now chiefly filled
with coal-dust, was not too simple in a limited space, with limited hot
water. My porthole, looking over those fuming bunkers, had to be shut
at all hours. According to everybody, the _Bonadventure_ was "a dirty
ship"; although it seemed unlikely that a carrier of coal by thousands of
tons should be clean.

She at least began to please the chief with his coveted "Ten knots";
and at dinner on the seventeenth day out, he asked whether anyone had
seen a disturbance in the water. The old gentleman was expected. I was
sorry that he did not come, after all, with his "baptism," shave, and
medicine (and I believe other rites), when at about four in the afternoon
the _Bonadventure_ crossed the Equator; but old customs can scarcely be
eterna