in lion's skin, but her
role was none the less a responsible one.

"I was rather doubtful whether you would turn up," remarked Barry.
"The glass is dropping like billy-ho, and there's a brute of a sea
tumbling in."

"We need not return to-night," announced Ross.

"That's capital," rejoined the Lieutenant-Commander. "I'll get the
hands to hoist in the boat and trice the accommodation-ladder up. We
roll like a barrel in a sea-way."

"You've got a big command this time, sir," said Vernon.

Barry smiled.

"Yes," he replied. "Plenty of room, but the lighting 'tween decks is
rotten. All artificial, you know, except the little we get in through
the quarter-deck skylights. I'm expecting young Jolly; he's the A. P.
you saw ashore at Invergordon. Not a bad sort of youngster when he's
clear of his work. Would you like to look round before we go below?"

"Of course the Germans know all about our dummy battleships," continued
Barry as he led the way. "They jeered at the scheme in the papers as
far back as last November twelvemonth."

"Then what's the object?" asked Ross.

"It muddles them up. They can't distinguish the _Tremendous_ from this
packet, especially in hazy weather. They've got to guess which is the
substance and which is the shadow. From actual results we know now
that the costly experiment has more than justified the expenditure."

The Lieutenant-Commander and his young guests continued to talk shop
until it was time to go below. From that moment, conversation drifted
into other channels of more or less personal interest.

Presently a loud whistle was heard from without.

"That's Jolly," declared the Lieutenant-Commander. "It's the last boat
to-night, I fancy."

A few minutes later the A. P., having divested himself of his dripping
oilies and sou'wester, was ushered into the cabin. Separated from his
duties as Accountant Officer, he was much the same as other men. Ross
could hardly believe that the jovial officer--for he did not now belie
his name--was the same explosive man who had figuratively lost his head
over four ounces of "tacks tinned".

Dinner over, the four officers drew their chairs close to the fire and
yarned incessantly. Even the laboured rolling of the ship, the howling
of the wind overhead, and the _chouf chouf_ of the waves as they
slapped against the sides, failed to remind them that they were afloat
and in an exposed anchorage.

"Heard from your sister recently?" en