midnight
It was a laborious task , with the one relief that it was not far to hand them -- a doubtful compensation , for other reasons distantly shaping themselves . When the stack was transferred to the deck I followed it , tripping over the flabby meat parcel , which was already showing ghastly signs of disintegration under the dew . Hazily there floated through my mind my last embarkation on a yacht ; my faultless attire , the trim gig and obsequious sailors , the accommodation ladder flashing with varnish and brass in the August sun ; the orderly , snowy decks and basket chairs under the awning aft . What a contrast with this sordid midnight scramble , over damp meat and littered packing-cases ! The bitterest touch of all was a growing sense of inferiority and ignorance which I had never before been allowed to feel in my experience of yachts . Davies awoke from another reverie over my portmanteau to say , cheerily : ` I 'll just show you round down below first , and then we 'll stow things away and get to bed . ' He dived down a companion ladder , and I followed cautiously .