and retrieve his
boots through the smoky atmosphere of the lower regions. What a
contrast were those murky hours to these glorious mornings in the
tropics--the green translucent sea, the soft golden light, the salt,
stimulating air, all shimmering and melting together! The day really
dawned for Shafto when a certain Panama hat, crowning a beautiful head,
emerged from the companion ladder, and the smile in a pair of bright
dark eyes greeted him like a ray of sunshine. One morning, as the
couple paced the deck before breakfast, accompanied by Mr. Hoskins, an
excited fellow traveller accosted the trio.

"I say," he began, "have you heard? They have just signalled land
ahead!"

"Oh, where?" cried Sophy eagerly.

"Do you see over the starboard bow, that faint dark streak upon the sky
line?"

She nodded.

"Well then," he announced impressively, "that is Burma!"

Shafto snatched up a pair of glasses and gazed at the long line of
coast and, as he gazed, he felt as if he stood upon Pisgah and a whole
new world lay open before him. He was figuratively surveying the
Promised Land!

CHAPTER XI

A BURMESE HOSTESS

Early in the same afternoon the _Blankshire_ picked up her pilot at
Elephant Point and entered the famous Irrawaddy. Long before her
destination was in sight, twenty miles from the sea, the glorious Shwe
Dagon, a shining golden object, towered into view, flashing in the
sunlight against a background of impenetrable woods.

Rangoon, on a river navigable for nine hundred miles, is a large and
important seaport and, as the wealth of one of the richest countries
filters through its ports, naturally the approach is thronged with
shipping. Our incoming liner met or overtook cargo steamers, tank
ships, battered tramps and heavily laden wind-jammers in the tow of
straining tugs, not to mention steam-launches, barges and swarms of the
local _sampan_, or small boat.

At the wharf where, amidst deafening yells and hoarse shoutings, the
_Blankshire_ crept to her berth, crowds of different races--brown,
black, yellow and white--awaited the English mail. Passengers were
eagerly claimed by their friends and hurried away to motors and
carriages; all was excitement and bustle. Alas! 'board-ship
friendships soon evaporate, and presently Shafto found himself standing
on the aft-deck with his gun-case and cabin luggage, deserted and
forgotten--no, for here came Hoskins, the police officer, hot and
breathless.