midday
She put her hand caressingly on the top of his hand . `` Never mind , dear , '' she said softly ; `` I 'll stand by you . You sha n't be _ alone _ . '' It was midday , then , on the tropic seas , and the horizon was closing in with clouds as of blood and vapours of stifling heat . A steamship was rolling in a heavy swell , under winds that were as hot as gusts from an open furnace . Under its decks a man lay in an atmosphere of fever and the sickening odour of bandages and stale air . Above the throb of the engines and the rattle of the rudder chain he heard a step going by his open door , and he called in a feeble voice that was cheerful and almost merry , but yet the voice of a homesick boy -- `` How many days from home , engineer ? ''