Thomas was a busy man up to and long after the hour of sailing.

His cabins were filled with about all the variant species of the race: two nervous married women with their noisy mismanaged children, three young men on a lark, and an actress who was paying her husband's expenses and gladly announced the fact over and through the partitions.

Three bells tingled all day long, and the only thing that saved Thomas from the "sickbay" was the fact that the bar closed at eleven.

And a rough passage added to his labors.

No Henley this voyage, no comfy loafing about the main-deck in the sunshine.