Naval Occasions, and Some Traits of the Sailor-man

Not now.

w and S

The great annual War-game was at an end, and the Fleet had met, with rime-crusted funnels and rust-streaked sides, to talk it over and snatch a breathing space ere returning to their wide sea-beats and patrols. Evening drew on, and the semaphores

be told again for the joy of the telling, while they supplemented with a forgotten name or incident, harking back to the golden yesterday, when the world went very well indeed. The talk swung north to the Bering Sea and south to Table Bay, forging swift links with the past as it went. It would have seemed to a stranger as if the members of a club had met to discuss a common experience. And yet these men were here haphazard from a dozen ships-their club the S

he dance began. Much it left in point of elegance, it is to be feared, but it was fine strenuous exercise. The last figure was reached, and on completion of th

h a mound of assailants, and vainly striving to adjust collar a

round. A couple of bridge-tables were made up, and the players settled down with that complacent indifference to outside distraction peculiar to men who live habitually in crowded su

up your little turn?" called out one, addressing a grave-faced officer who sat smoking on the settee. "Yes," chorussed half a dozen voices, "go on,

fathers, k

far-flung

sed their horseplay, and leaned panting over the backs of the

and a contr

round the singer jo

f Hosts, be

rget, lest

ight overhead appeared faces and the glint of uniforms. The Gunroom started the last verse, and the rest joined-men's

dust that b

calls not t

boast and

on thy peo

en

arted. Groups clustered at the gangways; the night was full of farewells and the hooting of picket-boats' syrens. Gradually the Mess emptied, and in the flat where the midshipme

the town. From there his gaze travelled round to the silent Fleet, line after line of twinkling anchor-lights and huge hul

ile discussion about armaments-brawling in Parliament.... 'Le

jacket made a tiny clink. "Yes. And meanwhile we go on just the same, talking as little as they

e starry heavens. "How Rome, sliding into Chaos, withdrew her Legions till only one was left to garrison the Wall. And it was forgotten. Rumours must have reached the fellows in t

ce of numbers, must annihilate them in the end-unless Rome rallied, suppose they could have retreated-or compromised,-haggled for their skins. No one would have thought less of them for it in those days. But they had been broug

esting like a tired giant; but the pin-point of light, and another that answered it on the insta

ure with his pipe-stem, embracing the silent battl