(When that happened Lady Saffren Waldon's scorn was something the arch-priests of Babylon would have paid to see.) There was never room on the tiny after-deck for more than six people sitting elbow to elbow and back to back or knee to knee.

Lady Waldon simply refused to yield her corner seat on any account at any time to any one.

Coutlass refused to leave his new sweetheart, for the freely-voiced reason that then Brown might make love to her; and we did not care to send both of them below for obvious reasons.

That reduced open-air accommodation to a minimum, because the reed-and-tarpaulin deck was scarcely strong enough to bear the weight of two men at a time, and we did not care to throw the whole deck overboard for fear of rain.
And by-and-by the rain came--out of season, but no less violent because of that.

It rained three days and nights on end--three windless days and starless nights, during which we had to linger alongshore close to the papyrus.