The screw could be altered while it was revolving, and as the wind freshened they coarsened the pitch, and when they wanted to stop the engines they coarsened the pitch so as to bring the screw right fore and aft, so that they never altered the way of the ship in changing from steam to sail alone.

At any rate, here was a place unpolluted by men, kept clean by the winds from coarsening human influences, a place where spiritual agencies were within reach and aggressive.

Moments of poignant sorrow were these when Bedient realized he was not of the West; that he irrevocably missed the great inner content of India, and would continue to hunger for it, until he returned, or coarsened his sensibilities to the Western vibration.