The Perils of the Sea

the N § e w° *Zea la mi rn men t: Smith - Jones ”- a y° un ir scientist in the service of Cook Isia n d s IS .Adm in i s tra t i red The uttfe °T rdue T Raroton g*. so the

only g( accTnT<fdation C^nr^i^ £

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effects were T?eTd CVidently been there some time-her but stern-faceT I tried to' that I 5 *° 40 not bad-looking, and that there was only cLbhi „ bee £ chartered for me, °ffi cia1 ’ SS h^T r giv«i g^r ly pennlssi^n tr to S t^aveTon^T^ thinI h c h r ii h Sl^ nary the sharin e of a cabin with a strange man was some h HT never d ? ne and would not contemplate. “Madame,” I said “I will do anything possible in the cause of gallantry. But this little shin makes C .T atant S Se *- Sick ’ and 1 shall be spending much time in my berth You cannot possibly sleep out on that wet deck. I shall try to behave like a gentle man-but anyway. I shall be too darned sick to think of conventions.” g However, she thought plenty about the conventions. I never have seen a woman more desperateiy harassed. She finally accepted the fact that we must share the cabin. I arranged that I should take my sea-sickness on deck during certain hours in the day; and I think she spent those hours, in the top bunk, sleeping.

At nights (there were two of them) I think she sat up all night in ner top bunk, sleepless and alert, armed with her heavy shoe against this wicked world. She was not actively hostile, but she was not at all friendly. I should have liked to have learned something about the life and outlook of a Mormon woman missionary, and about the differences between Primitive Mormons who were polygamous, and Reformed Mormons, who are not.

But she never lowered her guard; and as she marched away from the landing-jetty in Rarotonga, her uncompromising back expressed nothing but gratitude to whatever power had kept her safe from the perils of the sea.