238 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



certain to wake immediately. So we groped our 

 way in semi-darkness down the stairs and up to 

 what we thought was his cabin. Mrs. Stevenson 

 called " Major B." in gentle tones; no answer, but 

 four snores, all in different voices, and we did not 

 recognize any of them. We both tried again a little 

 louder, with the same result and same snores. Mrs. 

 Stevenson said, " He told me which was his berth, 

 I'll give a tug at his sheet/' The slight tug was no 

 use at all, so she gave a harder one. Then came a 

 very angry voice, " Who's there, and what the devil 

 do you want? " The voice we certainly did not 

 know, so we fled, and, on safely reaching our cabin 

 again, we laughed so much that the inhabitants next 

 door battered on the wall and told us very fiercely 

 to " dry up " and let decent people go to sleep ! 



On the ship were two missionaries, who one day 

 were having a deep religious discussion ; I was sitting 

 with my back to them and looked round once or 

 twice as they waxed furious. They did not seem to 

 agree with each other at all, and grew more and more 

 earnest and vehement in the argument. They were 

 standing some yards off when they began, but the 

 missionary furthest away drove his adversary back 

 and back, until he backed him up to my chair, where 

 he had to stop. Without looking round he seized 

 the woodwork of the chair in his hands, clutching 

 and jerking it rather uncomfortably for me, and 

 then, not knowing in the slightest what he was doing, 

 he seized my head in his hands, behind his back, 

 and rubbed my hair vigorously round and round, till 

 I felt rather like a mop. I bore it for some little 



