Dart’s idle body has infected his mind. With nothing to do all day but sleep, read, and watch the endless horizon, he finds his brain can think of little to write about. Still, he somehow manages to fill three pages.

He makes the comment that he lives in “mortal fear” that the censors will cut his letters to ribbons. Two things struck me; he seems to get nearly every word of his letters past the prying eyes and sharp instruments of the ship’s board of censors and, he never sees his letters once they are passed on to that body. Because he’s had no word yet from Dot, he has no idea how much of his letters survive for her eyes.

I assume he’s traveling somewhere near the equator, which may account for his days being slightly longer than 24 hours. He also has surmised that he’ll probably not be running into his buddy Fred. It seems the Pacific is quite large and the island where Fred stays is tiny (although Dart does not know what island that is.) He says his group is headed for a different island in a different part of the Pacific. What isn’t clear to me is how he came to the conclusion, without knowing where he’s going or where Fred is staying, that they will not be the same place! Once again, he asks Dot to send him Gordon’s address so that he can keep on the look out for his ship. What fun if they could meet each other for the first time on the other side of the world!

He writes a little about the movies he’s seen recently. Apparently the ship’s crew gets movies almost every night, but as a passenger, Dart has seen only three.

As much as he’d like to be together with Dot, he’s grateful she can’t see him right now. His fair skin has taken quite a beating (or shall I say “broiling”) on the open sea and he has peeled twice already. He mourns the fact that he can’t tan like most of the other guys.

He closes with “I wish you were here, or even more, that I were there.” I’m sure that’s true!

More from Dart tomorrow.