This weather was on'y warm. Why, once when he was aboard the
_Ocean Queen_, her bunker gev' out six hours north o' Perim, but he
whipped the awnin's off, an' the sun kep' up a head o' steam in the
boilers until she ran into port.
The saloon party found existence more endurable. They had adjustable
window-shades, and electric fans, and there was a sheltered deck over
their heads. So they dozed away the hot hours placidly until the
memorable day dawned when Stump, after much close scrutiny of charts,
ventured to leave the safe channel down the center of the Red Sea and
stand in towards the African coast.
"Massowah!" was on every tongue, and the general listlessness vanished.
Soon a dim land-line appeared. It grew into a range of barren
mountains, broken by narrow, precipice-guarded valleys. Then a thin
strip of flat fore-shore became visible. It deepened into a flat
island, barely two miles long, and assumed a habitable aspect. A
lighthouse marked a fine harbor. A custom-house, a fort, several
jetties, and a town of fairly tall buildings stood clear from a
scattered gathering of coral-built Arab houses and hundreds of grass
and mat huts.
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