vely boatswains silver
whistle on a silver chain, and has an air of command and the appearance
of deepest intelligence.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V

[Illustration]

There is a frightful crush on board. It would take years to consider all
the faces. Numbers of ladies are going out to join their husbands after
having taken their children home in spring. By the afternoon all the new
comers look much refreshed; they have washed off the travel stains of
that dusty journey across France, have tidied up, eaten, and slept a
little, and have perhaps met friends of the road. You hear,
"Hillo--hillo--you here again! met in Simla last, didn't we--wasn't it
cold last night?" "By Jingo it was--rummy spell of cold--coming over all
western Europe so suddenly," and they talk of "Cold weathers," and
"Rains," and "Monsoons," and places you think you heard about in school
days and have forgotten; and you realise something of what there is
ahead to learn.

Meantime I watch the lascars taking off the effect of the coaling last
night; how blue and sharp the reflections of the sky are on the wet deck
and their dark feet. It is my business to paint things, not to write,
about them, still, both occupations dissipate the time wonderfully. They
are scrubbing down the waist, washing the decks with brushes and
squeejees and lashins of blue Mediterranean; they wear dungaree tunics,
and trousers of dark blue and faded pale blues, with red cloth round
their straw skull-caps, and are all in shadow--that colourful, melting,
warm shade you have in the South in the afternoon.

27th Evening.--To what shall I liken this evening on deck? You know a
railway carriage on Bank Holiday, and you have heard perhaps of a
Newfoundland sealing ship, the crew head and tail and three deep in the
bunks, and all about the deck and along the bulwarks for want of
room--well, it's worse here, at the price! In the smoking-room there is
not an inch to sit on; men lean against the pillars, others against the
side of the bar or against each other. A few have got seats for bridge,
others sit on sofas round the side, the rest have to stand. There were
more passengers when we left Tilbury than allowed any free movement on
deck; we made light of that. Now, people are jammed beside each other
all the way up the side of the deck that is sheltered from the sweep of
the wind, others sit on the rail; those who want to move have to pick a
devious and careful course between t