e war."

"Shouldn't remember her if I had," mumbled the gallant.

"She's Uncle Bill's ward, and by way of being rather fond of Podgie, I
fancy--at least, she used to be, I know. But the silly old ass won't go
near her since he lost his foot."

Mouldy Jakes dried his tooth-brush, and, fumbling in his trouser pocket,
produced a penny.

"Heads or tails?" he queried.

"Tails--why?"

"It's a head. Bags I the lower berth."

The India-rubber Man, in his compartment, had got into pyjamas and was
sitting up in his bunk writing with a pencil and pad on his knees. When
he had finished he stamped and addressed an envelope, rang for the
attendant, and gave it to him to be posted at the next stopping-place.
It bore an address in Queen's Gate, London, where at the moment the
addressee, curled up in the centre of a very large bed, was doing her
best in the darkness to keep a promise.

[1] Torpedoes.

[2] Mines.

CHAPTER II

THE "NAVY SPECIAL"

Railway travel appeals to the sailor-man. It provides him with ample
leisure for conversation, sleep, or convivial song. When the
possibilities of these absorbing pursuits are exhausted, remains a
heightened interest in the next meal.

The pale February sunlight was streaming across snow-covered moorland
that stretched away on either side of the line, when the Highland
Express drew up at the first stopping place the following morning.
From every carriage poured a throng of hungry bluejackets in search of
breakfast. Many wore long coats of duffle or sheepskin provided by a
maternal Admiralty in view of the severe weather conditions in the far
North. The British bluejacket is accustomed to wear what he is told to
wear, and further, to continue wearing it until he is told to put on
something else. Hence a draft of men sent North to the Fleet from one
of the Naval depots in the South of England would cheerfully don the
duffle coats issued to them on departure and keep them on until they
arrived at their destination, with an equal disregard for such outward
circumstances as temperature or environment.

A night's journey in a crowded and overheated railway carriage, muffled
in such garb, would not commend itself to the average individual as an
ideal prelude to a hearty breakfast. Yet the cheerful, sleepy-eyed
crowd of apparently par-boiled Arctic explorers that invaded the
restaurant buffet vociferously demanding breakfast, appeared on the
best of terms with thems