emy."

"Optimist!" replied the Navigator composedly. "News, indeed! This
isn't Wolff's Agency, my lad. This is a Cook's tour of the North Sea."
He sniffed the damp, salt breeze. "Bracing air, change of scenery: no
undue excitement--sort of rest cure, in fact. And you come along
exhibiting a morbid craving for excitement."

"I know," said Thorogood meekly. "It's the effect of going to the
cinematograph. All the magistrates are talking about it. They say
Charlie Chaplin's got something to do with it. I suppose, though,
there's no objection to my asking what the disposition of our Light
Cruisers happens to be, is there? It's prompted more by a healthy
desire to improve my knowledge before I take over the afternoon watch
than anything else."

"They're out on the starboard quarter," replied the late Officer of the
Watch. "You can't see them because of this cursed mist, but they're
there."

"Strikes me this afternoon watch is going to be more of a faith cure
than a rest cure as the Pilot suggests," grumbled Thorogood.
"Battle-cruisers somewhere ahead, Cruisers invisible in the mist, Light
Cruisers----"

The report of a gun, followed almost instantly by a loud explosion,
came from far away on the port bow. A Destroyer that had altered
course was resuming her position in the Destroyer line on the outskirts
of the Fleet. A distant column of smoke and spray was slowly
dissolving into the North Sea haze.

At the report of the gun the three men raised their glasses to stare in
the direction of the sound. "Only one of the Huns' floating mines,"
said the Navigator. "She exploded it with her 8-pounder. Pretty shot."

"Well," said Tweedledee, "I can't stay here all day. Anything else you
want to know, James? What's for lunch? I'm devilish hungry."

"Boiled beef and carrots," replied Thorogood. "_Mit_ apple tart and
cream: the Messman can't be well. Pills says its squando-mania. No, I
don't think I want to know any more. I suppose the log's written up?"

"It is. Now for the boiled beef, and this afternoon Little Bright-eyes
is going to get his head down and have a nice sleep."

The speaker prepared to depart.

"Hold on," said the Navigator. "I'm coming with you. I've just got to
give the noon position to the Owner on the way."

They descended the ladder together, and left Thorogood alone on the
platform.

The Battle-fleet was steaming in parallel lines about a mile apart,
each Squadron in the w