e bridge," where young naval officers marched back and
forth, and where the captain dined in solitary state, save for Tom's own
presence.

Now and then, in the course of that eventful trip, Tom looked enviously
at the young wireless operators, and more particularly at the marine
signalers, who moved their arms with such jerky and mechanical precision
and sometimes, perhaps, he thought wistfully of certain fortunate young
heroes of fiction who made bounding leaps to the top of the ladder of
fame.

But he did his work cheerfully and well and became a favorite on board,
for his duties gave him the freedom of all the decks. He was the
captain's mess boy and could go anywhere.

Indeed, with one person he became a favorite even before the vessel
started.

It was well on toward dusk of the third day and he was beginning to
think they would never sail, when suddenly he heard a tramp, tramp, on
the pier and up the gangplank, and before he realized it the soldiers
swarmed over the deck, their tin plates and cups jangling at their
sides. They must have come through the adjoining ferry house and across
a low roof without touching the street at all, for they appeared as if
by magic and no one seemed to know how they had got there.

Their arrival was accompanied by much banter and horseplay among
themselves, interspersed with questions to the ship's people, few of
which could be answered.

"Hey, pal, where are we going?"

"Where do we go from here, kiddo?"

"Say, what's the next stop for this jitney?"

"We don't know where we're going,
but we're on our way,"

someone piped up.

"We're going to Berlin," one shouted.

The fact that no one gave them any information did not appear to
discourage them.

"When do we eat?" one wanted to know.

Tom saw no reason why he should not answer that, so he said to those
crowded nearest to him, "In about half an hour."

"G-o-o-d-ni-ight!"

"When are we going to start? Who's running this camp anyway?"

"Go and tell the engineer we're here and he can start off."

"Fares, please. Ding ding!"

"Gimme me a transfer to Berlin."

And so it went. They sprawled about on the hatches, perched upon the
rail, leaned in groups against the vent pipes; they covered the ship
like a great brown blanket. They wrestled with each other, knocked each
other about, shouted gibberish intended for French, talked about _Kaiser
Bill_, and mixed things up generally.

At last they were ordered