Page images
PDF
EPUB

and filled one receptacle with rice. Into a second he fingered two bits of boiled fish; a third he filled with vegetables, and into the fourth he, with more discriminating hand, placed some of the evilly smelling pickles which the soul of the Japanese loveth. The boxes were piled one on top of another till they were as high as they could be carried by an able-bodied seaman, who took them into the hold and distributed them to the passengers. As for ourselves, we had contracted for European food by payment of two yen a head for the voyage. An appetising duck hung from the rigging aft, giving promise of generous supplies to meet the healthful appetite born of fresh sea-air and smooth seas.

The sun had gone down when we reached the harbour-bar, but the west was golden yet, and the moon, nearing its full, was brightly shining out of a sky as blue as if it were noonday. As we crossed the bar the little steamer began to throb and leap about in an unexpected manner. The duck, hung on to the rigging, wagged its head in a forlorn manner, as if it did not like the prospect at all. But the engineer was even more energetically hopeful.

"A narrow place this, you see. The tide running in like as if the Pacific was trying to

crowd itself into a mill-pond. But it'll be all right by-and-by, you'll see. Besides, our captain can run in if he gets it too hot."

This was satisfactory as far as it went. But why should the captain want to run in on a night so fine that he was tempted to remain on deck?

"It'll be all right, you'll see," the engineer persisted, tightening his tarpaulin trousers, which he had put on since I saw him last.

I never remember to have seen an engineer in tarpaulin trousers; but then I had never before seen the sun and moon brightly shining in the heavens at the same time. Autre pays autre mœurs. Perhaps in the coasting trade of Japan the engineer always clad himself in tarpaulin when the night was expected to be exceptionally fine.

We cleared the bar, and got out into the full sweep of the Pacific; but things did not seem to improve. It was almost as light as day, and far around was the dreary waste of waters leaping out and breaking into foam. It was getting near six o'clock, and a savoury smell came from the galley. The vessel was not only rolling, but pitching. That, however, was not much to travellers who had crossed two oceans.

We walked up and down the little deck,

determined, as we said, to get an appetite for dinner. It was not much of a walk at best, and was momentarily growing shorter as the spray began to break across the deck for'ard. The hatchways were closed, and the men were battening them down, making it comfortable for the crowd below. I peeped through a chink in the tarpaulin to see how the Japanese family were getting on. They were not smiling now, being too busily engaged in the effort to keep their walls up. Sometimes a box would roll off on the port side, and whilst they were re-fixing it, a bundle placed aft would drop down upon them as the steamer buried its miserable little nose in the sea. I was conscious of the engineer watching us as we paced the deck, but whenever we approached the engine-room he disappeared. He was evidently as anxious now to avoid conversation as he formerly had been to open it.

At four bells we turned in for dinner. We had been very cheery on deck, perhaps a little ostentatiously at our ease, staggering about with the heaving ship. But when we got to the bottom of the ladder and were standing in the close and narrow saloon the gaiety of the company was eclipsed. The last thing I saw as I descended was the duck shaking its

head more violently than ever, with an expression of idiotic bewilderment that haunted me through the terrible night. We were not, however, going to give in without a struggle. Dinner was on the table, and we would at least sit down, making talk of ghastly cheerfulness and eyeing each other suspiciously. We ate our soup and eagerly discussed its relative merits with those of various other soups we had eaten under circumstances we were at curious pains to remember and recite. Two courses followed, one of mutton, the other of veal. I forgot which was the veal; but it did not matter. It might have been called turtle fin with equal accuracy of reference to its flavour. At this stage the lady of the party retired.

Another course arrived of some undistinguishable meat. I am not sure that it was not the veal back again, having passed out at one door and in at the other, after the manner of an army of supers at country theatres. The young gentleman from Glasgow, though unusually silent, did fairly well. He had paid for his dinner, and the commercial transaction would not be completed unless he ate it. Something else came on-perhaps cheese, peradventure an orange. The cook was determined to rise to the occasion and show the

friends of the Foreign Minister what could be done on board this ship. To this end he had manufactured three small tarts, of very pale complexion, which, by way of luring on the appetite, had been placed on the table with the soup. These tarts were always slipping off the table, being rescued from under by somebody and replaced on the dish. I have a fancy that they were not quite so pale when I first saw them. But with the cabin bobbing about in this style, the ceiling coming down to the floor, the floor going up to the ceiling, and occasionally the port or starboard side taking the place of the ceiling, even a tart made of tinned greengages might be excused if it gradually lost some of its fresher tints.

I meant to sit out the young gentleman from Glasgow; but when I saw him take up one of these tarts with evident intent of eating it, I left. It was not easy to get fixed on the plate-shelf, but it was done at last, and I even got to sleep. From time to time-it seemed at least every hour-I was awakened by the thuds of the sea as it thundered down on deck and with a rushing noise swept backwards and forwards till it finally cleared off. Alas for the hapless Japanese family with their frail tenement of boxes, and their poor shelter of tarpaulin! It was piteous to think

« PreviousContinue »