de him; and none knew so well as
those two how many and great were the dangers that lurked in our smiling
environment.

As we drew nearer to our journey's end the desire for news became acute.
At Madeira, on the 24th of January, we heard that the situation in Natal
was practically unchanged, and up to February 3rd we had not seen
another ship pass nearer than five miles. But then it was thought
probable that we should meet the _Dunottar Castle_ on her way home, and
a bright look-out was kept. In the afternoon I was up on the bridge
discussing celestial angles with the Chief Officer; we were snoring into
the south-east trade, and the strong sun-warmed wind was a thing to
bathe in; the bridge binoculars diligently swept the sharp blue line of
horizon. Presently the Third Officer put his glass down. "There she
is," said he, "two points on the starboard bow." We all looked, and we
saw the tiny smear of smoke on the line. How strange it was; both of us
coming up from nowhere and meeting on this roadless waste! In a quarter
of an hour we raised her masts and funnel, and then we perceived it was
not the _Dunottar_. Our course was altered two points, and the three of
us stood up there in the wind and sun watching the growing speck. Down
below they had just seen her, and glasses were levelled by the hundred.
In a little while we could see a red cross on her bow, and we made her
out to be a hospital ship carrying home wounded--Buller's wounded, we
said, from the Tugela fight.

"BWF, HLF, WBQ," fluttered out our signal flags in a bravery of scarlet
and blue and white, which is, being interpreted, "What news since the
24th?"

She was abeam now, a mile away; how slow they were in running up an
answer! We pictured their signal quartermaster racking the pigeon-holes
to spell "Ladysmith," and expected a gaudy display. Presently the
coloured stream blew out from her main topmast stay. Only four flags!

"DFPC," reported the Third Officer, and there was a scramble for the
Code-book. "Nothing important since last accounts."

Could anything be more exasperating? We ran up another question, I do
not know what, but we waited in vain for the answering flutter, and the
hospital ship _Princess of Wales_ rolled along on the blue swell.

"South by east-a-half-east," snapped the Chief Officer; the wheel spun
and the steering engine hissed, and the _Kinfauns Castle_ drove her stem
into it again, while from the promenade deck rose the sound of