the older envoy , liu bao , had stayed away also , leaving sun kai as the senior representative ; but even he made only a spare , formal greeting on their arrival , and afterwards maintained a calm and silent dignity , though he stared intently at the barrel-thick column of the foremast , painted in yellow stripes , which came down through the ceiling and passed directly through the middle of the table , and went so far as to look beneath the table-cloth , to see it continuing down through the deck below .