repetition of the drills which seem such a wearisome business to the
civilian. The men know the reason of their drudgery. It is an all-
convincing bull's-eye reason. Ping-ping! One heard the familiar sound
of sub-calibre practice, which seems as out of proportion in a fifteen-
inch gun as a mouse-squeak from an elephant whom you expect to
trumpet. As the result appears in sub-calibre practice, so it is
practically bound to appear in target practice; as it appears in target
practice, so it is bound to appear in battle practice. It was on the
flagship that I saw a device which Sir John referred to as the next
best thing to having the Germans come out. He took as much delight
in it as the gun-layers, who were firing at German Dreadnoughts of
the first line, as large as your thumb, which were in front of a sort of
hooded arrangement with the guns of a British Dreadnought inside--
the rest I censor myself before the regular censor sees it.

When we heard a report like that of a small target rifle inside the
arrangement a small red or a small white splash rose from the
metallic platter of a sea. Thus the whole German navy has been
pounded to pieces again and again. It is a great game. The gun-
layers never tire of it and they think they know the reason as well as
anybody why von Tirpitz keeps his Dreadnoughts at home.

But elsewhere I saw some real firing; for ships must have their regular
target practice, war or no war. If those cruisers steaming across the
range had been sending six or eight-inch shrapnel, we should have
preferred not to be so near that towed square of canvas. Flashes
from turrets indistinguishable at a distance from the neutral-toned
bodies of the vessels and the shells struck, making great splashes
just beyond the target, which was where they ought to go.

A familiar scene, but with a new meaning when the time is one of war.
So far as my observation is worth anything, it was very good
shooting, indeed. One broadside would have put a destroyer out of
business as easily as a "Jack Johnson" does for a dug-out; and it
would have made a cruiser of the same class as the one firing pretty
groggy--this not from any experience of being on a light cruiser or any
desire to be on one when it receives such a salute. But it seems to be
waiting for the Germans any time that they want it.

Oh, that towed square of canvas! It is the symbol of the object of all
building of guns, armour, and ships, all the nursing in d