the
small hand-wheel in the bowels of this huge ship whereby she had been
steered limping into port. He directed my gaze also to divers vast
shell holes and rents in her steel sides, now very neatly mended by
steel plates held in place by many large bolts. Wherever we went were
sailors, by the hundred it seemed, and yet I was struck by the size
and airy spaciousness between decks.

"The strange thing about the Hun," said my companion, as we mounted
upward again, "is that he is so amazingly accurate with his big guns.
Anyway, as we steamed into range he registered direct hits time after
time, and his misses were so close the spray was flying all over us.
Yes, Fritz is wonderfully accurate, but"--here my companion paused to
flick some dust from his braided cuff--"but when we began to knock
him about a bit it was funny how it rattled him--quite funny, you
know. His shots got wider and wider, until they were falling pretty
well a mile wide--very funny!" and the lieutenant smiled dreamily.
"Fritz will shoot magnificently if you only won't shoot back. But
really I don't blame him for thinking he'd sunk us; you see, there
were six of 'em potting away at us at one time--couldn't see us for
spray--"

"And how did you feel just then?" I enquired.

"Oh, rotten! You see I'd jammed my finger in some tackle for one
thing, and just then the light failed us. We'd have bagged the lot
if the light had held a little longer. But next time--who knows? Care
for a cup of tea?"

"Thanks!" I answered. "But where are the others?"

"Oh, by Jove! I fancy your party's gone--I'll see!"

This proving indeed the case, I perforce took my leave, and with a
midshipman to guide me, presently stepped aboard a boat which bore us
back beneath the shadow of that mighty bridge stark against the
evening sky.

Riding citywards through the deepening twilight I bethought me of the
Midshipmite who, amid the roar and tumult of grim battle, had been
"too busy" to be afraid; of the round-headed gunner who, like his
gun, was ready and eager for more, and of the tall lieutenant who,
with death in many awful shapes shrieking and crashing about him,
felt "rotten" by reason of a bruised finger and failing light.

And hereupon I felt proud that I, too, was a Briton, of the same
breed as these mighty ships and the splendid fellows who man
them--these Keepers of the Seas, who in battle as in tempest do their
duty unseen, unheard, because it is their duty.

There