He forgot, however, that the chief characteristic of the Sphinx is an
enduring patience, and he chafed at the colorless monotony of the next
few days. The Aphrodite crept under sail five hundred miles to the
south, until the wind died of sheer exhaustion. Then the engines took
their turn, and the yacht exchanged the steady roll of a topsail
schooner for the quivering uneasiness of a steam-driven ship. But sail
or steam, the pace was slow, and the passage of the Red Sea left its
record on the smart little vessel in the shape of blistered paint,
gaping seams, and planks from which the sweated pitch was no sooner
holy-stoned than it oozed forth again to smear their purity. Though
stout awnings defied the direct fury of the sun they could not shut out
its glare and furnace heat. And the human barometer showed the stress
of life. Stump was a caldron in himself, Tagg a bewhiskered malediction
in damp linen. The temper of the crew, stifling in crowded quarters,
suggested--that they were suffering from a plague of bolls. As a mere
pastime, there was an occasional fight in the forecastle. Unhappily for
the disputants, Stump had a ready ear for these frays, and he would
rush in to settle them with a vigor that left the pugilists prostrate.
Then he would recover his caustic humor for half an hour, and regale
Royson with yarns of things wot happened when the Bed Sea was reelly
hot. This weather was on'y warm. Why, once when he was aboard the
_Ocean Queen_, her bunker gev' out six hours north o' Perim, but he
whipped the awnin's off, an' the sun kep' up a head o' steam in the
boilers until she ran into port.

The saloon party found existence more endurable. They had adjustable
window-shades, and electric fans, and there was a sheltered deck over
their heads. So they dozed away the hot hours placidly until the
memorable day dawned when Stump, after much close scrutiny of charts,
ventured to leave the safe channel down the center of the Red Sea and