VI 



ADEN 



IT WAS cooler; and for a change we had turned 

 into our bunks, when B. pounded on our state- 

 room door. 



"In the name of the Eternal East," said he, 

 "come on deck!" 



We slipped on kimonos and joined the row of 

 scantily draped and interested figures along the rail. 



The ship lay quite still on a perfect sea of moon- 

 light bordered by a low flat distant shore on one side, 

 and nearer mountains on the other. A strong flare 

 centred from two ship reflectors overside made 

 a focus of illumination that subdued, but could not 

 quench, the soft moonlight with which all outside 

 was silvered. A dozen boats striving against a 

 current or clinging as best they could to the ship's 

 side glided into the light and became real and solid; 

 or dropped back into the ghostly white insubstanti- 

 ability of the moon. They were long narrow boats, 

 with small flush decks fore and aft. We looked 

 down on them from almost directly above, so that 



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