e into training together, and had never been separated.
One was a printer who helped to get out the Hillport Argus every
week, another clerked in a grocery store, another was the son of
a German watch repairer, one was still in High School, one worked
in an automobile livery. After supper Claude found them all
together, very much interested in their first evening at sea, and
arguing as to whether the sunset on the water was as fine as
those they saw every night in Hillport. They hung together in a
quiet, determined way, and if you began to talk to one, you soon
found that all the others were there.

When Claude and Fanning and Lieutenant Bird were undressing in
their narrow quarters that night, the fourth berth was still
unclaimed. They were in their bunks and almost asleep, when the
missing man came in and unceremoniously turned on the light. They
were astonished to see that he wore the uniform of the Royal
Flying Corps and carried a cane. He seemed very young, but the
three who peeped out at him felt that he must be a person of
consequence. He took off his coat with the spread wings on the
collar, wound his watch, and brushed his teeth with an air of
special personal importance. Soon after he had turned out the
light and climbed into the berth over Lieutenant Bird, a heavy
smell of rum spread in the close air.

Fanning, who slept under Claude, kicked the sagging mattress
above him and stuck his head out. "Hullo, Wheeler! What have you
got up there?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing smells pretty good to me. I'll have some with anybody
that asks me."

No response from any quarter. Bird, the Virginian, murmured,
"Don't make a row," and they went to sleep.

In the morning, when the bath steward came, he edged his way into
the narrow cabin and poked his head into the berth over Bird's.
"I'm sorry, sir, I've made careful search for your luggage, and
it's not to be found, sir."

"I tell you it must be found," fumed a petulant voice overhead.
"I brought it over from the St. Regis myself in a taxi. I saw it
standing on the pier with the officers' luggage,--a black cabin
trunk with V.M. lettered on both ends. Get after it."

The steward smiled discreetly. He probably knew that the aviator
had come on board in a state which precluded any very accurate
observation on his part. "Very well, sir. Is there anything I can
get you for the present?"

"You can take this shirt out and have it laundered and bring it
back to me tonight