be able to spark when there's trouble in the wind. He came from
somewhere in Western Canada, I believe. Seems to have tried farming
there for a spell, and I think he said something once about running his
own agricultural tractor. At any rate, in some way or another, he has
picked up more practical knowledge of petrol engines than many of our
so-called experts.

[Footnote D: Motor launch.]

"The fact is," continued the S.N.O. as we turned back towards his office
at the end of the quay, "the fact is that D----, though he never saw
salt water before he crossed the Atlantic to do his bit in the War, and
though he never has got and never will get, I'm afraid, his sea-legs, is
in many respects the most useful M.L. Officer I have ever had to do
with, and that's saying a good deal, let me assure you.

"He's always sick as a dog from the time he puts to sea to the time he
returns to port. The only thing that is liable to be more sick is the
Hun submarine he once gets his nose on. I've heard him say in a joking
way, two or three times, that he always could scent a Hun as far as he
could a skunk--I think that's what he calls it; and from some of the
things he's done I must confess I'm more than half inclined to believe
him. Perhaps his most remarkable achievement, however, is that of taking
eight or ten men, just as green as he was himself regarding the sea, and
making of them a crew that will handle that cranky little lump of a
craft pretty nearly as smartly as old trawler-men would on the nautical
side, and at the same time having a fund of resource always on tap that
is positively uncanny--almost Yankee, in fact," he added with a smile.
"Indeed, I believe D---- speaks of having knocked about the States a bit,
which may account for some of the 'wooden-nutmeg' tricks he has played
on the U-boats. Try to get him to tell you some of them. You'll hardly
be allowed to write much of them for a while yet--certainly not until
they have become obsolete through the introduction of new devices; but
you'll find it good material some day."

* * * * *

M.L. ---- looked more diminutive than ever as I was rowed out to her
anchorage in the chill grey mists of the following morning; but a raw
cold, which had been striking through to the marrow of my bones,
dissolved, as by magic, before the friendly warmth of the welcome
which awaited me, when I had clambered up the sawn-off Jacob's Ladder
and over the wobbly