er dreary,
overcast day and leaden, troubled sea. And no Miss West. Wada, too, is
sea-sick, although heroically he kept his feet and tried to tend on me
with glassy, unseeing eyes. I sent him to his bunk, and read through the
endless hours until my eyes were tired, and my brain, between lack of
sleep and over-use, was fuzzy.

Captain West is no conversationalist. The more I see of him the more I
am baffled. I have not yet found a reason for that first impression I
received of him. He has all the poise and air of a remote and superior
being, and yet I wonder if it be not poise and air and nothing else. Just
as I had expected, that first meeting, ere he spoke a word, to hear fall
from his lips words of untold beneficence and wisdom, and then heard him
utter mere social commonplaces, so I now find myself almost forced to
conclude that his touch of race, and beak of power, and all the tall,
aristocratic slenderness of him have nothing behind them.

And yet, on the other hand, I can find no reason for rejecting that first
impression. He has not shown any strength, but by the same token he has
not shown any weakness. Sometimes I wonder what resides behind those
clear blue eyes. Certainly I have failed to find any intellectual
backing. I tried him out with William James' _Varieties of Religious
Experience_. He glanced at a few pages, then returned it to me with the
frank statement that it did not interest him. He has no books of his
own. Evidently he is not a reader. Then what is he? I dared to feel
him out on politics. He listened courteously, said sometimes yes and
sometimes no, and, when I ceased from very discouragement, said nothing.

Aloof as the two officers are from the men, Captain West is still more
aloof from his officers. I have not seen him address a further word to
Mr. Mellaire than "Good morning" on the poop. As for Mr. Pike, who eats
three times a day with him, scarcely any more conversation obtains
between them. And I am surprised by what seems the very conspicuous awe
with which Mr. Pike seems to regard his commander.

Another thing. What are Captain West's duties? So far he has done
nothing, save eat three times a day, smoke many cigars, and each day
stroll a total of one mile around the poop. The mates do all the work,
and hard work it is, four hours on deck and four below, day and night
with never a variation. I watch Captain West and am amazed. He will
loll back in the cabin an