t no less violent because
of that. It rained three days and nights on end--three windless days
and starless nights, during which we had to linger alongshore close to
the papyrus. In order to keep mosquitoes out we had to light a smudge
in the sand-box below. The smudge added to the heat, and the heat
drove men to the open air to gasp a few minutes in the rain for breath
and go down again to make room for the next in turn.

Sleep on shore was impossible, for thereabouts were crocodile and snake
swamps, fuller of insect life than dictionaries are of letters. Poling
was next to impossible, because the soft mud bottom gave no purchase.
And the oars we made out of poles were clumsy affairs; there was not
room for more than two boys to try to use them at a time, even if the
deck would have stood the strain of more feet, which it certainly would
not have done.

Lady Waldon slept seated in her corner, with her head wrapped in a veil
over which the mosquitoes prospected in gangs. Coutlass and his
lady-love endured rain and insects in the open, too, but suffered less,
because of mutual distraction. The rest of us took turns with the
natives below, lying packed between them, much as sardines nestle in a
can, wondering whether the famous Black Hole of Calcutta was really
such a record-breaker as they say. Brown was of the opinion that the
Black Hole was a nosegay compared to our lot--"Besides which, they
probably had rum with 'em!" he added.

Some of the porters grew sick under the strain of heat, fear,
excitement and inactivity. The native suffers as much from
unaccustomed inconvenience as the white man, and more from close
confinement. The third night out the man next me began coughing,
shaking my frame as much as his own as he racked himself, for we were
wedged together with only the thickness of his blanket and mine between
us, and I was jammed tight against the ship's side. Toward morning he
grew quiet--grew colder, too. When dawn came we found that he had
coughed up the most of his lungs on my white English blanket.

I gave them the blanket to bury him in, and we poled the Queen of Sheba
inshore to find a place to dig a hole, leaving the body stretched on
some tree-roots while we prospected. We should have known enough by
that time to leave four or five men on guard close by; as it was, when
the men still on board the dhow began kicking up a babel, Fred and I
came running and jumping back through the marsh jus