A Lively Bit of the Front

it

both look pretty well knocked up. Semaphore the convoy and report that the

t-lowering practice was again resorted to it would be advisable to provide ring-bolts and securing lashings to prevent the soldiers falling overboard; meanwh

e C.P.O.'s mess on board the Gosport, one of the earlier type of

at prevailed; everything was "carried out at the double", yet there was a total absence of unnecessary noise. Compared with th

a kangaroo, Sergeant?" enqui

ed a period of comparative relaxation. Being fine weather, most of the "

utiously, half suspecting that th

aroo. "You ought to know a lot about th

e seen kangaroos in New Zealand, but they were l

beef or condensed milk. His hay ration's expended, but the cook's keeping him going on biscuit mashed in 'bubbly'. Some of the men suggested

e off 'is feed, Bill," interposed a lea

was the armourer's mat

Panjie was to fall in with the physical-exercise party, an' skip round the ship 'arf

ngaroo should be allowed on deck for exercise. The paper, marked "Approved, provide

cal exercise. A space between two of the casemate guns of the starboard side wa

ign of vantage was packed with interested lower-deck humanity, while from both

lose-clipped Bingo, the monkey, had such interest been shown in any unofficial incident. Bingo was Panjie's predecessor, a large Madagascar ape. Curiosity concerning a barrel of coal-tar led to Bin

a light-weight boxer. It was a half-grown animal of about four feet six inches in height. Apparently indifferent to the grant o

e of the Corporal's shipmates. "Take him on for half a

e high jump," voc

h as catch can',"

his own idea of the correct method of exercising the animal

wo-step," he called out. "Come on, my lady,

grasped the animal's short fore paws, Panjie let rip with one of his powerful hind legs. The kangaroo might have been off his feed, but his muscular

red, some yelling encouragement to the kangaroo, othe

easily as a pantomime clown jumps through a paper hoop. Over the heads and shoulders of a tightly-packed throng of bluejacke

versation. Like a dart Panjie dived betwixt the bowed legs of the accountant officer, and, in blind desperation, butted the senior o

ned to man the sea-boat, but the upheld hand of the

rely absent. A quarter of a mile on the starboard quart

al had escaped the suction of the propellers, but the fall from a vessel pelting a

or even to slow down. She merely "carried on" descri

mmander, addressing the Captain.

r grimly. "We've played into

ome of them, and several of the Awarua's crew, had provided themselves with running bowlines,

angaroo's limp body, firmly encircled with three or four b

he Skipper bitterly, and straightwa

sport's bridge a barefooted signalman wrote down the message on a pad. He

He, in common with nearly all the officers

e skipper of the Awarua had

w running" (it was a flat calm a regular "Paddy's hurricane") "I propose retainin

cruiser. Sportsmanlike the skipper accept

r: "Now we are quit