The Long Trick

d hung threateningly over the City al

as engulfed almost at once by the murky darkness. Sounds out of the unseen reached the ear muffled and confused: a motor horn hooted near the entrance, and quite close at hand a horse's hoofs clattered and rang on the cobbled paving-stones. The persistent hiss of escaping steam at the far end of the station seemed to fil

in a not unmusical jodelling t

arc lights, crowding round the carriage doors where their friends and relations gathered in leave-taking. Most of them carried little bundles tied up in black silk handkerchiefs and paper parcels whose elusive contents usually appeared to take a leguminous form, and something o

of light to pass round bottled beer, until an elderly female, bearing tracts, scattered them into the shadows. They left her standing, slightly bewi

lver and coppers into the hands of the human derelict that had been his companion through the past week. "'Ere you are, Sally," he said, "tak

and debonair and sleek of hair, bade osculatory fare

pted his chum, "'ere, A

cée's pretty upturned mouth. This the chum promptly did, following up the coup, ami

riend's mother delightedl

mporary displacement of false teeth had robbed her. "Glad there wasn't no sailors down our

s' exile. A little boy in a sailor-suit clung to the woman's skirt and gazed admiringly into the face of the man he had been taught to call "Daddie"-the jovial visitor who came to stay with them

ncern of ours. The little group has been recorded because of the woman. Mechanically rocking the child in her arms, with her neat clothes and brave little bits of finery,

and one or two Military officers walked to and fro, or stood at the doors of their compartments superintending the stowage of their l

wristwatch. The light of the arc-lamp, falling on the shoulder-straps of his

ve minutes mo

irl n

ad, I mean." She smiled, a rather wan little smile. Her companion sli

bin, Betty, and-let's s

llowing, encountered the uniformed atten

sir?" he inquired, co

le," was the reply. "At

U-D. Which i

you are, sir." He eyed the officer's companion with a professionally reassuring air, as much as to say, "He'll be all right in th

"we just wanted to-er-see

presume? I'll come along when we're due to start and l

tender scrutiny of a mother about to relinquish her

miled into her husband's eyes rather tremulously. "And take care of yourself as hard as ever you can. Remember your leg and your poor old head."

will you, Betty, when I've gone? Promise-say: 'Sure-as

and let me know when I can come North and be near you, won't you?" A sudden thought struck her. "Bunje, will they cen

And if mine have to be read, the fellow who reads 'em just skims through

ted at a light tap at the door. "Passengers are taki

rrendered it, and, catching a glimpse of Betty's face, returned to his compartment thanking all his Gods that he was a bachelor. A whistle sounded out of the gloom at the far end of the long train, and a

and for a moment lips and fingers met

er little gasp, and stepped back int

her hands at her side like a schoolgirl in class, her face rather white and her

ders to fumble fiercely for his pipe. Courage in the woman he loves will

f the faint fragrance of violets still lingering in the air. She

horse!" he said. For a moment he sat thus sucking his unlit pipe and staring hard at the carpet, and not until i

y a pair of broad shoulders, appeared cautiously in the opening. Sta

e, of all people! Come

w you with your missus just now, so I hid-I'm in the next

ff abruptly, and his glance strayed involuntarily to the ground. The new-come

hore batteries on the Belgian coast got our range by mistake one day at dawn. Dusted us down properly." He extended his leg again. "Hence the milk in the coco-nut, as you might say. However, we had a makee-learn doctor on

sked the other

nt of fact!" He laughed softly at the grim jest. "So they lushed me up to this outfit, and gave me a job as King's Messenger.

hus abruptly terminated. He wondered, as he met the speaker's smiling eyes with a sympatheti

somewhere in my bag," he interrupted. "Come along in

of the train. Standish followed. Never again, he reflected, would he follow those br

ng in his suit case for his flask. "Squat down at the end there-got your glass?" He meas

Yes, I got a couple of 'cushy'

He contemplated the Benedict over the rim of his tumbler with the whimsical faint curiosity w

xpression. Then he looked up, smiling. "What about

ntemplatively on his outstretched leg. "Not very likely to either…. How d'you like th

had changed the conve

ad in the direction in which they were travelling. "How are they stick

up Fritz's 'warts'[2] out of the Swept Channels. Talking of 'warts' reminds me of a yarn going round last time I was up-it's a chestnut now, but you may not have heard it. One of the mine-layers nipped down in a fog and laid a mine-field off the mouth of the Ems. It was a tricky bit of wo

ng at that moment glanced in, hesitated, and filled the doorway with his bulk. A slow sm

Podgie?" he

came recognition. "Thorogood, surely! Come in, old lad. W

a greeting, acknowled

e East Indies, weren

e both in camp together-way back in the 'Naughty Naughts.'

do still," he said, "min

rupted the King's Messenger. "

my compartment. Can I bring him along: the old thing may ge

ndish wants to know all about life in the Grand Fleet. You

ted the India-rubbe

d I have been there since J

th-glass in his hand. His lean, rather sallow face relaxed for an instant into a smile during the process of introdu

oing?" asked the King's M

met Mouldy this morning, and

ry to have had such a respo

with my Uncle Bi

e for Uncle B

o the Admiralty, so I t

peaker contemplated his

st h

laughed. "What happ

knees and proceeded to fill a cherrywood pipe of vil

vies," was the grave and

afternoon was 'Britain's Sea-Dogs, or Jack-Tars at War,' and that appears to have been too much for our little Lord Fauntle

e," he observed in sepulchral tones. "Always glad to get back. Like the fellow in the Bastille-what?" He

vy one, and signifies m

lina said to the Gover

ost. "There isn't any mor

diluting his tot from the water-bott

e you going

e other took a sip of his whisky and water and nodded with

scuttles: tinned air and electric light between decks: wake up every morning feeling's if you'd been gassed. An' the turrets--" He plunged gloomily into technicalities that conveyed the imp

rcise?" queried the In

eutenant lapsed agai

net-foursomes. Fine exercise." He spoke with the grave enthusiasm of the athlete, to whom the attainment of bodily fitness is very near to godliness indeed. "Yo

ailors-are they

or 'em. Everybody has more leisure to devote to them than in peace-time: their amusements and recreations generally. Cinema shows and regattas, boxing championships, and all the rest of it. There's

period of time had passed since he said good-bye to Betty: and the next moment he felt that he had had en

mself, and slipped his

fficient unto the day

departure, and Thorogood prodded

he said. "It's some time since I saw him last, but

taring at the shaded electric light overhead

victims of an incomprehensible and ravaging disease. "An' it's always the good ones that get nabbed." H

t is as may be: but I'm off

o be led to the double-berthed co

ed on his bunk, nursing his maimed limb and staring into vacancy as the express roared on through the night. Final

rogood reflectively to his compa

ushing his teeth over the tiny

"No, I don't think you did: she was at school

r her if I had," m

of Podgie, I fancy-at least, she used to be, I know. But t

rush, and, fumbling in his tro

tails?"

ls-w

. Bags I the

nished he stamped and addressed an envelope, rang for the attendant, and gave it to him to be posted at the next stopping-place. It bore an address in Q

Torp

Mi