est boats. Men flung discipline
to the winds and began fighting for a chance of their lives. It was a
terrific and humiliating scene.

Suddenly, over the tumult, was heard a loud, ringing laugh.

"Oh, I say, Duff! Not that way! Not that way!"

Again came the ringing laugh.

Immediately a silence fell upon the struggling crowd, and for a moment
they stood looking inquiringly at each other. That moment of silence was
seized by the sergeant major. Like a trumpet his sonorous voice rang out
steady and clear.

"Fall in, men! Boat quarters! Silence there!"

He followed this with sharp, intelligible commands to his N. C. O.'s.
Like magic, order fell upon the turbulent, struggling crowd.

"Stand steady, you there!" roared the sergeant major, who having got
control of his men, began to indulge himself in a few telling and
descriptive adjectives.

In less than two minutes, the men were standing steady as a rock and the
panic was passed.

"Who was it that laughed up there in that stampede?" inquired the O. C.,
when the officers were gathered about him in the orderly room.

"I think it was the Sky Pilot, sir--the chaplain, sir," said Lieutenant
Stewart Duff.

"Was it you that laughed, Captain Dunbar?" asked the colonel, turning
upon Barry.

"Perhaps I did, sir. I'm sorry if--"

"Sorry!" exclaimed the colonel. "Dammit, sir, you saved the situation
for us all. Who told you it was a false alarm?"

"No one, sir. I didn't know it was a false alarm. I was looking at
Lieutenant Duff--" He checked himself promptly. "I mean, sir--well, it
seemed a good place to laugh, so I just let it come."

The colonel's eyes rested with curious inquiry upon the serene face of
the chaplain, with its glowing eyes and candid expression. "A good place
for a laugh? It was a damned good place for a laugh, and gentlemen, I
thank God I have one officer who finds in the face of sudden danger a
good place for a laugh. And now I have something to say to you."

The O. C.'s remarks did not improve the officers' opinion of themselves,
and they slunk out of the room--no other word properly describes the
cowed and shamed appearance of that company of men--they slunk out of
the room. They had failed to play the part of British officers in the
face of sudden peril.

In his speech to the men, the C. O. made only a single reference to the
incident, but that reference bit deep.

"Men, I am thoroughly ashamed and disappointed. You acted, not like
soldi