drink, seemed used to travel, but produced a coarse-grained effect,
made grammatical errors, and on the whole was a person from whom, once
ashore, I should flee.

At six o'clock on the seventh night out our voyage entered its second
lap; all the electric lights were simultaneously extinguished as we
entered the danger zone. We made a sketchy toilet by means of tapers,
groped like wandering ghosts down a dim corridor, and dined by the faint
rays of candles thrust into bottles and placed at intervals along
the festive board. I went on deck afterward to find the ship plunging
through blackness on forced draft, with port-holes shrouded and with
not even a riding-light. If not in Davy Jones's locker by that time, we
should reach Gibraltar the next evening; afterward we should head for
Naples, a two days' trip.

The following morning found our stormy weather over. The sea through
which we were speeding had a magic color, the dark, rich, Mediterranean
blue. Ascending late, I saw gulls flying round us and seaweed drifting
by, and Mr. McGuntrie in a state of nerves, with a life belt about him,
walking wildly to and fro.

"Well, Mr. Bayne," he greeted me, "never again for mine! If I ever
see the end of this trip,--if you call it a trip; I call it merry
hades,--believe me, I'll sell something hereafter that I can sell on
land. I'm a crackerjack of a salesman, if I do say it myself. Once I got
started talking I could get a man down below to buy a hot toddy and a
set of flannels--and I wish I'd gone down there and done it before I
ever saw this boat."

Unmoved, I leaned on the railing and watched the blue swells break.