here...."

* * * *

"As a matter of fact we caught the Turk who laid most of the mines in
the Tigris. He conned us up the river--we put him in a basket and
slung him on the bowsprit: just in case he got careless, what? ..."

* * * *

"... Beer? My dear old lad, the Japs had scoffed all the beer in
Kiao-Chau before I got into the main street...."

* * * *

"... I had a Midshipman up with me as observer--aged 16 and 4 months
precisely.... Those machines scared the Arabs badly...."

* * * *

"... Just a sharpened bayonet. You slung it round your neck when you
were swimming.... Only had to use it once ... nasty sticky job. No
joke either, crawling about naked on your belly in the dark...."

* * * *

"... We had a fellow chipping the ice away from the conning-tower
hatch all the time we were on the surface, 'case we had to close down
quick. I tell you, it was Hell, that cold! ..."

* * * *

"... Five seconds after we had fired our torpedo a shell hit the tube
and blew it to smithereens. A near thing, I give you my word...."

* * * *

A Lieutenant-Commander appeared at the doorway from the smoking-room.

"There will be an exhibition bout next," he shouted, "and then the
final of the Light-weights!" A general move ensued on to the upper
deck.

The raised ring was in amidships before the after superstructure. The
officers occupied tiers of chairs round three sides of the platform.
The Admirals and their staffs in front, and the Post-captains of the
ships that had entered competitors, just behind. On the forward side,
extending the whole breadth of the ship, was the dense array of the
ship's company. The majority were in tiers on planks, but a number had
found their way to other points of vantage, and were clustered about
the funnel casings and turrets and even astride the great guns
themselves. A murmur of men's voices, punctuated by the splutter of
matches as hundreds of pipes were lit and relit, went up on all sides.
The judges were taking their seats at the little tables on either side
of the ring, and the referee, an athletic-looking Commander, was
leaning over from his chair talking to the Chaplain who was acting as
time-keeper.

The Physical Training Officer of the Flagship stepped into the empty
ring and raised his hand for silence. Th