she said:

"I have noticed such an odd person watching you--he looks as if he knew
you!"

"Knew me!" repeated Shafto. "What is he like?"

"A tall, broad-shouldered, lanky man--there he is, leaning over the
side, wearing a blue serge suit and a soft felt hat."

Shafto stared for a moment, then he said:

"By George! I _do_ know him--though I can hardly believe my eyes.
I'll go and speak to him and find out what this means," and he hurried
away below.

"Hullo, Mung Baw!" he exclaimed. "Say, this is something like a
surprise! What are you doing here?"

"Much the same as yourself, sir. The Tug of War is drawing us all
home. I have left Mung Baw and the yellow robe behind me, and I'm now
Corporal Michael Ryan. I'm going into the Army again. Why, I'm only
thirty-four when all's said and done. Of course, the shaven head ages
a fellow, but I'll grow me hair on me passage home and, maybe, a
moustache as well; someone told me that kerosene oil is a grand thing.
And you are going to join up too, sir?"

"I hope so; I put in two terms at Sandhurst, so I shall have a try. I
should like to get into the Flying Corps."

"And what will herself say," with a glance towards Sophy on the main
deck, "to all this fighting and flying?"

"Oh, Miss Leigh won't stand in my way--she intends to look for a job,
too. Tell me, Michael, do you really believe they will take you back
into the Service after your adventure in Upper Burma--and seven years'
absence without leave?"

"Well, since ye ask me, sir, in my opinion they might do worse;
annyhow, I'll have a good try. I might get a sort of doctor's
certificate--_mental_ you know. I'm a first-class shot, though
naturally a bit out of practice; and very hefty with the bayonet. I'd
like well to stir them Germans up, ever since one great ugly brute went
out of his way to give me a kick. I was black and blue for weeks. Did
you hear them the day before they were took off--just screeching mad,
shoutin' and drinkin', as if the world was their own. Well, annyhow, I
can enlist as full private; I'm sound in wind and limb and, I tell ye,
we want all the men we can get, for I heard them Germans talkin' very
big in Rangoon, saying they'd eat us all up within the next three
months--body, sleeves and trimmings!"

"Easier said than done," rejoined Shafto; "although they have a
splendid army--and thousands of big guns."

"I'd like well to have a hand in real fighting--none of your autumn