MARSEILLES TO SINGAPORE n 



carried at a 22-knot pace to catch up with the 

 larger mail-steamers at Port Said. We dutifully 

 received the mails from the Isis, weighed anchor, 

 and at last, at nine o'clock in the morning, pushed 

 our nose into the first reaches of the Suez Canal. 



If the night had been stifling, that day and the 

 ensuing night in the Canal were little less so. We 

 crept along at a snail's pace, five knots an hour 

 being the limit allowed, occasionally tying up at 

 one of the buoys along the bank to allow another 

 larger vessel to go by, but generally able to pass 

 comfortably whatever ship appeared from the op- 

 posite direction. The hours dragged interminably, 

 all day the desert wastes of Egypt to starboard 

 and Arabia to port glaring away into the distance. 

 On deck we sprawled in steamer-chairs and gasped. 

 The night brought little relief. Our progress was 

 aided by a powerful searchlight, which threw ex- 

 traordinary shadows and altered into fantastic 

 shapes whatever craft passed us. Fortunately the 

 last stains of the previous night's coal-dust had 

 been washed away, mattresses were dragged on 

 deck, and we slept in rows in what comfort such 

 heat would allow. 



The three days that followed in the Red Sea were 

 scarcely more comfortable. On the contrary, we 

 lay about in steamer-chairs, in costumes the uncon- 



