d a bit on a lovely morning like this!"

"Hop round!" echoed the other. "Hop round!" He looked about him as if
searching for a weapon. The dew, which everywhere had frozen during
the night, was slowly thawing on the canvas covers of guns and
searchlights, dripping from shrouds and yards and aerials.

"Lord alive!" continued the Watchkeeper. "Haven't I been hopping round
this perishing quarterdeck since four a.m. keeping the Morning Watch?
If Tweedledee doesn't come and relieve me soon I shall die of frostbite
and boredom." The India-rubber Man was moving towards the hatchway.
"And if you're going along to the bathroom, for pity's sake see there's
some hot water left that I can sit and thaw in."

In the meanwhile the Midshipmen had descended to the cabin-flat where
their chests occupied most of the available deck space. Flushed and
breathless with exercise, the majority proceeded to divest themselves
of their flannels and, girt with towels, made off for the bathroom.
One, however, flung himself panting on to his chest, and sprawled
partly across his own and partly on his neighbour's.

"I swear this is a bit thick!" he gasped. "I'm not used to this sort
of frightfulness." He waved his legs in the air. "I shall get heart
disease. Anguis pec--pec---- What's it called?"

"Peccavi," prompted his neighbour, slipping out of his clothes and
donning a great-coat in lieu of a dressing-gown. "Otherwise 'The ruddy
'eart-burn.' Just move your greasy head off my till. I want to get at
my razor."

"That's the worst of these 'new brooms'"--the victim of heart trouble
surveyed his legs anxiously--"I know I've lost a couple of stone since
this physical training fiend joined. I don't suppose my people will
know me when I go home."

"Well, you aren't likely to be going home for some time to come," said
another, a seraphic-faced nudity contemplating his biceps in the small
looking-glass that adorned the inside of his chest, "so I shouldn't
worry. I say, I'm sweating up a deuce of an arm on me. Shouldn't
wonder if I pulled off the Grand Fleet Light-weights next month," he
added modestly, "if this sort of thing goes on. I just mention it in
case any of you are thinking of putting your names in." He turned from
the glass, laughing. "Hullo, Mally, going to have a shave, old thing?"

"Yes, if I can get at my razor---- Oh, Bosh, get off my
chest--sprawling all over my gear!"

"I'm in a state of acute physical exhaust