ce crowned
one of the participators in undying fame. This popular hero broke an
oar half-way through the race, and rising to his feet promptly sprang
overboard.

His spectacular action plunged the remainder of the crew in hopeless
confusion, and he himself was rescued with difficulty in a half-drowned
state of collapse by the Umpire's boat. Yet for some occult reason no
feat of gallantry in action would have won him such universal
commendation on the Lower-deck. "Nobby Clark--'im as jumped overboard
in the Bandsmen's Race" was thereafter his designation among his
fellows.

The last race--the All-comers--did not justify universal expectation.
The treble-banked launch was indeed coxed by the Chief Boatswain's
Mate. A "Funny-party" in the stern, composed of a clown, a nigger and
a stout seaman in female attire, added their exhortations to the "Chief
Buffer's" impassioned utterances. But the Flagship's galley, pulling
eight oars, with the coxswain perched hazardously out over the stern,
won the three-mile tussle, and won it well.

As the Quartermaster of the Morning Watch had foretold, a breeze sprang
up towards the close of the day. It blew from the southward and
carried down the lines a medley of hilarious sounds.

A drifter hove in sight, shaping course for the Fleet Flagship. She
was crowded to suffocation with singing, cheering sailor-men, and
secured to her stumpy bowsprit was a silver cock. As she approached
the stern of the Flagship, however, the uproar subsided, and the
densely thronged drifter was white with upturned, expectant faces.

A solitary figure was walking up and down the quarterdeck of the
Battleship. He paused a moment, suddenly stepped right aft to the
rail, and smilingly clapped his hands, applauding the trophy in the
bows of the drifter. The last rays of the setting sun caught on the
broad gold bands that ringed his sleeve almost from cuff to elbow.

A wild tumult of frantic cheering burst out almost like an explosion
from every throat still capable of emitting sound. There was gratitude
and passionate loyalty in the demonstration, and it continued long
after the figure on the quarterdeck had turned away and the drifter had
resumed her noisy, triumphant tour of the Fleet.

"That's what I likes about '_im_," whispered a bearded seaman hoarsely,
as they swung off on their new course. "'E's that '_Uman_!" He jerked
his head astern in the direction of the mighty Battleship on whose v