Rudyard Kipling 239 smoking-room by the wheel. There a strong breeze found him, blew his cap off and left him bareheaded in the doorway, and the smoking-room steward, understanding that he was a voyager of experience, said that the weather would be stiff in the chops off the Channel and more than half a gale in the Bay. These things fell as they were foretold, and Dick enjoyed himself to the utmost. It is allowable and even necessary at sea to lay firm hold upon tables, stanchions, and ropes in moving from place to place. On land the man who feels with his hands is patently blind. At sea even a blind man who is not sea-sick can jest with the doctor over the weakness of his fellows. Dick told the doctor many tales — and these are coin of more value than silver if properly handled — smoked with him till unholy hours of the night, and so won his short-lived regard that he promised Dick a few hours of his time when they came to Port Said. And the sea roared or was still as the winds blew, and the engines sang their song day and night, and the sun grew stronger day by day, and Tom the Lascar barber shaved Dick of a morning under the opened hatchgrating where the cool winds blew, and the awnings were spread and the passengers made merry, and at last they came to Port Said. “Take me,” said Dick, to the doctor, “to Madame Binat’s — if you know where that ts.” “Whew!” said the doctor, “I do. There’s not much to choose between ’em; but I suppose you're aware that that’s one of the worst houses in the place. They'll rob you to begin with, and knife you later.” “Not they. Take me there, and I can look after myself.” So he was brought to Madame Binat’s and filled his nostrils with the well-remembered smell of the East, that runs without a change from the Canal head to