WHILE Nora and Elizabeth had been on shore a swell had risen, which increased as the day wore on; embarkation of cargo had to be stopped, and some steerage passengers who came on board during the afternoon had a rough time. They were moving from one coast town to another, and had their household goods, which were few enough all told, with them, and it was pitiable to see how wet the bedding was getting. The three friends stood on the promenade deck watching them, and held their breath as a child was thrown from the heaving boat to one of the sailors standing on the steps by which such passengers had to climb up the side of the Razila. He caught it safely, but it looked fearfully dangerous.
Soon after this they saw the Austrian officer and his Belgian wife putting off from the shore, but they came on board quite comfortably by a different set of steps. One of the ship's officers, who was standing by Nora, explained that it would have been contrary to the ship's rules to have allowed steerage passengers to come up that way, and that they were probably used to that kind of thing. She thought of the child, and felt sorry that the rules were quite so rigid.
By this time the little family had begun to put up a sort of tent, under which they lived picnic fashion, as the steerage deck was open to the sky. It was in the stern of the vessel, and a little gate in the railing which ran along one end of the promenade deck opened on to a few steps leading down to it.
Our friends found a good deal of entertainment in watching the Moors who had taken their passage on this lower deck. One especially amused them. He brought out a small brazier and set to work to make a fire. In England we put the paper and sticks underneath and light the fire from the bottom, but this man appeared to be carefully arranging his sticks and paper above the coal or charcoal, and then set fire to it at the top. It was evidently the way he was accustomed to do it, and it soon burnt up. He next produced a pot or pan with a yellowish-looking mess in it, and put it over the fire to get hot, and every now and then he stirred it with his finger. This served a double purpose, as it helped to keep the thick mixture from burning to the bottom of the pot, and also enabled him to tell when it was warm enough. Before it was too hot for his finger he removed it from the fire and started eating it with evident relish.
If he had shown signs of embarrassment, no doubt Nora and her friends would have looked another way, but he did not seem at all to mind being watched.
Another thing they could not help noticing about the Moors was the way they slept. They just lay down in any spot where they were not likely to be in the way, each one so covered up in his loose garment that it was sometimes hard to realize there was a man inside it, for they looked just like so many little heaps of clothes.
It helped those who observed them to understand the meaning of the charge which God laid upon the children of Israel when He said to them: "If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: for that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious." Truly the God who cares whether or no a poor man has the garment which forms his covering for sleep, is a gracious God indeed.
When dusk fell the moon rose full and clear, and Casablanca was transformed by its softening light into a city of unreal beauty baffling description.
The next day was Sunday, and the friends were glad to spend a quiet day, the only excitement being that the officer on watch in the afternoon discovered that the ship was dragging her anchor. Passengers were not supposed to know the reason of the sudden scurrying about, but when one of them asked a ship's boy what was the matter, he hesitated for a moment and then told her. They watched a man with a long line taking soundings while the ship moved seaward, and soon safe anchorage was found and the anchor let go again.
We all know the shape of an anchor, and that it is made like that so that when it is cast out one of its points may catch in the bottom of the sea. It has to be very strong because of the great strain put upon it, and besides this it has to be dropped in a place where it can take firm hold of the sea-bottom.
A believer on the Lord Jesus Christ who has fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before him is like a ship that has a strong anchor fixed in a sure place. No matter what storms of trouble or winds of temptation he may meet with, his anchor can never drag. All the promises of God are secure in Jesus, who has entered within the veil as Forerunner for us, and is there in the presence of God "a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.”