Our travellers settled themselves as well as possible, which
was not well at all, on the little bridge under an awning. However,
Esperance found it all delightful.
The trip was rather rough and uncomfortable, but most of the company
made the best of it. Mlle. Frahender grew pale and ill, and her hair
flew about in the most comic disarray. Cosily ensconced in a corner,
Maurice sketched the various attitudes his companions assumed with
every antic of the lightly-laden, wave-tossed Soulacroup. Hunched up
on the seat, Esperance clung to the rigging. Genevieve clutched at her
when a wave pitched the boat too far over. The others, well muffled
up, waited in silence. Jean Perliez sighted the shore continually with
his glasses, wishing it ever nearer so that his impatient idol might
soon be safe on shore again.
In due course the port of Palais came in view. The Soulacroup's
whistle shrieked through the air and in a quarter of an hour more they
landed. First the red pigs were taken off, tottering even on solid
land, no doubt brooding over the evils they had just passed through.
Maurice was enthusiastic when he caught a good view of the little port
of Palais, filled with a hundred little boats lined with blue nets.
The tuna boats carried from their ropes and around their sides long,
stiff silver tunas, so bright in the sun's rays that they hurt the
eyes.
"Oh! Do look," cried Esperance.
A little boat had just approached, overladen with sardines, and soon a
silver shower was falling on the hard stones of the quay.
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