ess blue eyes. "I'm afraid of
meeting him one day, unexpectedly, before I can establish our
identity!" His quick smile flashed across his sunburnt face and was
gone again.

The Submarine was passing under frowning walls of cliff, and the murmur
of the surf thundering about the caverns and buttresses of that
rock-bound coast almost drowned the throb of the engines beneath their
feet. Far out to seaward a formation of Mine-sweeping Sloops crept
away to the west. Close inshore, where the gulls circled vociferously,
an insignificant trawler with a rusty funnel lay rolling in the swell.
A wisp of bunting jerked to the stumpy foremast, and a pair of
hand-flags zigzagged above the trawler's wheel-house. The Yeoman of
Signals on the Submarine's conning tower stiffened like a statue as he
read the message.

"Says, 'Will Sir William Thor-r-ogood come aboar-r-d, sir? If so,
he'll send a boat.'" His speech placed him at home in these Northern
latitudes.

"Reply, 'Yes. Please send boat.'"

A quarter of an hour later Sir William was climbing out of a tubby
dinghy over the trawler's bulwarks. A big bronzed man in a jersey and
sea-boots, wearing the monkey-jacket of a Lieutenant of the Reserve and
a uniform cap slightly askew, came forward, one enormous hand
outstretched in greeting. "Pleased to meet you, sir," he said. "My
name's Gedge."

Sir William shook hands and winced.

"I've heard of you," he said, "and I was anxious to meet you. What
d'you think of that toy?"

He nodded aft at a web of wire-coils, vulcanite levers and brass keys,
standing beneath a wooden shelter in the stern. Three or four officers
from the Fleet were gathered round it with note-books in their hands
testing and adjusting amid its intricacies.

"I've been lookin' at it," admitted the big man non-committally. "It
sounds like a cinch, but I understand it ain't perfect yet?"

"Not by what you might call a long chalk," was the dry reply.

The big man looked relieved. "That's all right," he said. "Because
when it is I guess I can go right along and get to bed. That little
outfit's going to finish the war, sir."

"Hardly," said Sir William. "But it's intended to help things in that
direction. Unfortunately, you see, there's still a factor--what we
call an unknown quantity----" He lapsed into technical explanations.
The other listened for a while and then shook his head.

"Maybe you're right," he said, "but I couldn't say. I'm no