Some of the older members of the party welcomed the Sunday evening
movies instead of the strenuous dancing, but we were all glad to go to
bed after the movie villain had been killed.



Chapter II



The servants were so attentive and the beds so soft that many of the
ladies fell into the custom of having breakfast in the staterooms.

After lunch one sunny day we mounted the steep little stairs to the
captain's quarters. His spacious combination living and bedroom with
private bath was a miracle to those of us who had to have the room boy
move the luggage in order to have space enough to open the quaint little
bureau drawers. On his center table was one of those strange dwarf
Japanese trees, that are not permitted to be imported. These odd plants
seem to thrive in spite of their diet of whiskey and the binding of
their branches with tiny wires - perhaps, if they must be fed
exclusively on whiskey, there is another reason besides the possibility
of their bringing into our country a foreign insect that excludes them.

We were told that the captain's and officers' quarters were certified
and not counted when the capacity of the ship was figured, so the ship
seemed bigger than ever to us. Next we invaded the chart room, saw the
device that tells the whereabouts of a coming typhoon, listened to the
telephonic arrangement that proclaims the proximity of the buoy bells,