n for his
afternoon nap.

"My days are mapped out like a time-table," Stoss explained. "My
attendant here, Bulke, served his four years in the German navy. With all
the ocean crossings I have to make, I couldn't get along with a man who
wasn't used to the water. I need a perfect water rat."

X

A little spell of dizziness came over Frederick when he went to his cabin
to fetch his heavy overcoat. On deck it was very quiet as compared with
the morning. Hahlstroem was nowhere to be seen, and Frederick seated
himself on a bench near the entrance to the main companionway. With his
collar turned up and his hat drawn over his forehead, he succumbed to the
state of drowsiness characteristic of sea trips, in which, despite the
heaviness of one's eyelids, one feels and perceives with a restless
lucidity of the inner vision. Images chase through one's mind, a
kaleidoscopic stream, shifting incessantly, going and coming, and finally
reducing the soul to a state of torture. The sybaritic meal with its
clatter of plates, its talking and music, was still whirling through
Frederick's brain. He heard the vaudeville actor declaiming. The half-ape
was holding Mara in his arms. Hahlstroem in all his height was looking on,
smiling. The waves were rolling heavily against the tiny dining-room and
pressing hard on the creaking hull. Bismarck, a huge figure in armour,
and Roland, the valiant warrior in armour, were laughing grimly and
conversing. Frederick saw both wading through the sea. Roland was holding
Mara, the tiny dancer, on his right palm. Every now and then Frederick
shivered. The ship careened, a stiff southeaster heeling her to
starboard. The waves hissed and foamed. The rhythm produced by the
rise and fall of the pistons finally seemed to turn into the rhythm of
Frederick's own body. The working of the screw was distinctly audible. At
regular intervals the stern would rise out of the water, carrying with it
the screw, which would then buzz in the air, and Frederick would hear
Wilke from the Heuscheuer saying:

"Doctor, if only the screw doesn't snap."

Finally, all the machinery of the vessel seemed to be turning in his
brain. Sometimes one engineer in the engine-room would call out to
another, and the clang of the metal shovels when the stokers fed the
furnace penetrated to the deck.

All of a sudden Frederick jumped to his feet; he thought he saw a ghost,
or a dead-alive corpse, reeling up the companionway and maki