A Tall Ship / On Other Naval Occasions

residential part of the town a small Naval Cadet st

ulated presently, "they

crowds of officer

y. "Well, I don't suppose any of them are

g the distant road from the landing place. "I hope th

readful things. You don't kn

here! How jolly exciting! He's coming up the avenue now. He's got red hair. . . . I believe-yes, it's-what was

over it. "That was a long time ago-before I put my hair up. I'm sure I didn't giggle either. Oh,

dropped her knitting on a small side table and walked quietly

said Joe. "She's out-I thought y

's Navy shook hands. "I recognised you from your photograph," said the host. "D'you remem

rmed a number of menial offices that day. But

an awful good rag. But I remember about you because Betty told me aft

both, and then greeted the Indiarubber Man with friendly composure. "How nice of you to come and see us! Mother is out, I'm af

aid the Indiarubber Man, taking a seat, and nervously hit

g time ago that seems!" She laughed quietly and considered him with merriment in her pretty eyes. The Indiarubber Man made a swift ment

heir eyes met, shyly questioning, a litt

North Sea now. We haven't se

s visit and the circumstances connected with it. It was a rather tedious explanation, but it filled in the time till tea arrived, when Betty busied herself among the tea-cups; her brother drew his chair clos

to justify high hopes of laughter-provoking humour. In fact, the guest's general demeanour compared unfavoura

f a juggling trick with the teaspoon or saucer. The guest's chief concern, however, appeared to be in find

umorist could hardly be expected to indulge in drolleries in the presence of a girl who stuck her nose in the air and put on enough side for six. It b

is feet. "I say, would you like to go for a walk?" Once

roposal. "I-it's very kind of you--" Then he tur

interposed the alarmed Joe. "Her skirts are too narr

to her feet, a slim, gracefully modelled young woman who looked perfectly capable of keeping up with anyone-or of jumping ditches, too, fo

y had indoors. The trio walked, via the sea front, to the gardens on top of the cliffs that overlo

do you do in action?

ter turret. But when it's all over I put on overalls and crawl about the works on my stomach and get a

k armour?"

llows on board who pre

be a mere ruse to get

d. "Everyone seems to have somethin

turned his head sh

turned into a hospital. And the other day Miss Dacre-she was the principal, you

ou could stick it-hacking off fellows' legs, an

n fact, I've been working down here at this hospital for the last six mo

s for the sick-room and spica b

ed. "Oh, ye

rom them to the dainty profile beside him. "Well," he said, "i

look that up in a book, then, before I

eplied the In

n of the sunset-light, there drifted up to them the faint, clear call of a bugle. Another

rds the ships. "Yes, they've hoisted the Blue

ean you must

afraid so," and held o

say, you're not off,

Betty. Don't forget to read up the book of the words-in case of complications. . . . Good-bye!" The Indiarubber Man departed down one

recall. His theories covered a wide range of possibilities. Only when they reached the house did Betty volun

" she said. "I hate

aying

ING'S

ne will eye you suspiciously, awaiting the inevitable tract. If none is forthcoming they will give a short, grim laugh, shake their heads, and, a

tainly will. And then, scenting silent sympathy, he guides you to

n with a past

*

also owned a grievance when he presented himself for entry

l peculiarities quite beyond his control. His nose was out of proportion to the remainder of his features. This system of nomenclatu

new entries owing to the conclusion of the hop-picking season, the insolvency of a local ginger-beer bottling factory, and other mysterious influences. Nosey's parchment certificate (that do

am

elt it p

lig

e address of his tailor. The Writer gave the surface of the parchment a preparatory rub

d alternative. It sounde

in? Neares

eplied Nosey haught

this sort of thing for the last eighteen months, and it rather bor

This was what he wanted, an opportunity to declare his antagonism to all

together. A sudden wave of forlornness swept over Nosey. He wanted his dinner, and was filled with emptiness and self-pity. T

arming voice, calculated to inspire awe and reverence in the breast of a

But I gotter fren'." He coloured hotly. "Miss Abel's 'er

nish Janie that Nosey had flung in his lot

kind of errandboy, who went his rounds on a ramshackle bicycle with a car

LMES

GER ICE

smaller letters,

red the area door when Nosey called to deliver such kippers and smoked haddock a

atmosphere of the Bloomsbury boarding-house. She had little beady black eyes, and a print dress that didn't fit her at all well. One stocking was generally coming down in folds over her ankle. Her han

s, by your leave, and captain of his soul-l

rding-house luncheon included soup on its menu, which meant more plates to wash up than usua

., Janie tasted the penultimate triumph o

ays. The possession of a young man-even a fishmonger's errand-boy on twelve bob a week-was a necessary adjunct to life itself. Of all that "walking out" implied: of love, even as it was underst

soil in which they took root and thrived-the daily interviews at the area door and these fortnightly strolls-seemed, on the face of it,

don square. Janie, gripping the handle of cook's borrowed umbrella, which she held perpendicularly b

lace seemed propitious, and

. There was mingled pride and perplexity in her tones; slowly she savoured the romantic moment to the full, t

got no prospecks." Walking out with twelve bob a w

A single life of drudgery and hardship, even as a boarding-house slavey, meant, if nothing more, meals and a roof over her head. Improvident marr

and you were done. So

e bull's-eye fade

carry in' on wiv me. . . . 'Ow could you? Pictur' palaces an' fried fish s

ie

amshackle bicycle became impossible. The very traffic murmured the name of Janie in his ears. London stifled him; he wanted to get away and bury himself and his grief in new surroundings. Then his eye was caught by one of the Admiralty

w Nosey di

*

generously. He was taught in a vast echoing drill-shed to recognise and respect authority, and after six months' prel

ed, free-fisted, cursing, clean-shaven men, who smelt perpetually of soap and d

ing through a web of hissing steam pipes and machinery; once across greasy deck-plates and through a maze of dimly lit alleys, you would find Nosey shovelling coal into the furnaces un

one of the turret-guns on deck, according to the hour of the day. He slept in a hammock slung in an electric-lit passage far

woodwork was scrubbed and scoured till it was almost as white as ivory. Other messes, identical in every respect, situated three feet apart, ranged parallel to each other as far as the steel, enamelled bulkheads. There were twenty men i

ey did no

*

rom the Middlesex Hospital

mestic offices" of Bloomsbury. Dark and ill-ventilated in summer, gas-lit and airless throughout the foggy winter. Flight upon flight of stairs up which Janie daily toil

he big airy ward. Neither spoke much; at no time had they been great conversationalists, and now Janie, more diminutive and a

reproachfully. "But I'm glad you're a sailor. You looks beautiful in them clothes. An'

e to leave. The nurse followed him into the corridor. "Come and see her every visiti

deck itself-was agog with rumours. Had he heard the "buzz"? N

hey to

which he belonged had

hat was Monday; they w

rsd

ying in the Mid

*

Number Ones" and carefully ironed blue collar, Nosey wore a rusty suit of "civvies" (civilian clothes)

ilor clothes?" a

mself that they were not overhear

with dismayed eyes.

He pressed her dry hand. "I got a barrer-whelks an' periwinkles. I've save

ake; and she was glad enough to have someone to sit with her on visiting days and tell her about the outside world she was never to see again. She even

heir leisure moments; the doctors seemed to acquire an added briskness. Once or twice she heard th

d not interest Janie much at first. That empires should battle for supr

ivvy" suit. Janie smiled as he approached the bed, and fumbled wit

whispered,

ad the lines indicated

ove of pardons being granted to all deserters from the R

in the street outside a transport wagon rumbled by.

ter go,"

t the newspaper. "Not me!" he retor

heet with transparent fingers. "'Tain't no use you comin' 'ere no mor

ce. He knew, as he sat looking down upon the fragile atom in

p. "If there's a war, you orter be fightin'," she added. "There's prospecks . . ." He

aw to his lips. "If you sez I gotte

z so. Don't you get worritin' about me; I'll be a

toed out of the ward. Janie turned h

F-SHO

took on a harder outline as the s

ound the Battle Fleet steaming in line ahead across a smooth grey sea. The smoke from the funnels hung like a long dark smear against the pearl

heather and moist earth. It was a good smell-just such a smell as our nostrils had hungered for for ma

eel side of our erie [Transcriber's note: eyrie?]. He shifted his position uneasily, and the hood of his duffel-suit fell back: his face, in the dawnin

n expression of annoyance passed

in a clear, decisive voice

s that we both shared. The petulant expression passed from his face, and he sank into deeper oblivio

s was thumbed and dog-eared and tattered with much usage-that the Indiarubber Man suggested taking a day off and having what he called a

agrant, high-banked hedges. "Think of the little pubs . . ." said the Indiarubber Man dreamily. We thought of them, but w

hts. Very nice in the dimpsey light, but stuffy in the daytime. So the moor had it in the end. We would trudge the moor from n

ime before the Indiarubber Man

ed our pockets. "We were looking at it before I went to ge

left it on th

unearth an alleged reproduction of the fair

tors," he explained generously. After this we studied the map in silence, vainly attempting to

k, and as we listened in the stillness we heard a faint whispering "swish" like the sound of a very distant reaper. It was the wind flowing across miles of reeds and grass and heather from the distant Atlantic. But it was not until half an hour later, when we breasted the crest of the great hog-

re the lichen clung bleached and russet, and stood looking out across the rolling uplands of Devon. Worthier adventurers would have improved the shining hour w

d hamlet commenced at the edge of the railway and stretched undula

e walls ringed the seven hills of Rome. The outlines of tors, ever softening in the distance, led the

here's Wheatwood," he said. "Come on." And so, shouldering our coats, with the ho

, and we were conscious of a sudden loneliness in a world of enigmatic hut-circles, peopled by sheep and peewits. We were working across a p

t-circle, and a Roman road knocking about

tree, nor was the Roman road startlingly obvious in the trackless waste. Our map had proved too clever for us. In the circumstances

een steering for. We were descending, thigh-deep in bracken, when the wind bore down to us from a dot against the skyline of a ridge the tiniest of thin whistles. A few minutes later a sheep-dog raced past in the direc

. To us, who had been nurtured on its broad bosom,[1] there was something almost pathetic-as in meeting an old nurse in much reduced circumstances-about this trickle

er effervesced over our bodies till we crawled out dripping to dry in the wind and sun, seemed to hold only gratitud

s and guide-books-worthier penmen all-have done that. Besides, quite enough people go there as it is. We dropped, via a kine-scented yard and over a seven-foot

n-burnt and dishevelled, we were conscious of a sudden immense embarrassment. And, in sooth, had we dropped from the skies or been esca

tly to the low-ceilinged room whither we fled, and I do not think we breathed comfortably again till we had paid o

when tired, roam as long as daylight and legs will let one-in fine, to share with the shaggy ponies and browsing sheep a lofty disregard for

ken. One ragged hill-top guided us to another, across valleys scored with the workings of forgotten tin-mines. A brook, crooning its queer, independent moor-song between banks of peat, rambled be

our shadows, valiant fellows, swung along before us across the rusty bracken with a cheerful constancy, and, encouraged by their ever-lengthening strides and by the solitude, we even found heart to lift our voices in song. Now and again small birds fled upwards with shrill twitters

st as it dipped to meet a ragged tor, and sank in a golden glow. A little wind, like a

the Indiarubber M

thickly wooded valley. It was five miles away, but s

e added tens

or behind us. Stumbling through twilit woods and across fields of young barley, we met a great dog-fox en route for someone's poultry-run. He bared his teeth with angry effrontery as he sheered off and gave us a wide be

ong the shadows: yet inexplicably they seemed an adjunct of their surroundings and the faintly bewildering night-scents. A dog sitting at the gate of a cottage uttered a short bark as we neared his domain

and froth-crested mugs of beer. While we ate and drank, she watched us with tranquil interest

p with a mighty sigh to loosen his belt. Then, bending do

servant depart in pea

end a certain smack of S

id, all uncomprehending, and r

*

k of the top, and the Indiarubber Man opened his eyes. He

. . I was dreaming . . . about . . . blowed if I can remember what I was dreaming about." He adjusted

and seventy-third morni

e Rive

I

E

d in that dim, remote p

st Lieutenant, the Indi

Training Duties), the

, long afterwards refer

to the giddy stars, have hurled instantaneous and awful death across leagues of the North Sea. The X-ray apparatus, by the agency of which Cornelius James desired to see right through his own "tummy," has enabled the

e on the horizon might have been the herald of Armageddon. They were yet to see men die by scores in the shambles of a wrecked battery, by hundreds on the shell-torn decks of a ship that

o the Roll of Britain's Honour. It is not too much to hope that the echo of children's merriment guided

*

eedn't accept the Invitation if you didn't want to; there was no necessity to put on your best monkey-jacket if you did. You were just told to "blo

ered settee; the A.P. sat on the hearth-rug, cross-legged like a tailor, so that he could toast and consume the maximum number of muffins with the minimum amount of exertion; the Junior Watchkeeper, who b

ee-hole table in search of an ancient recipe of the former's for manufacturing va

ieutenant, helping himself to milk and Jess

rnelius James. "At last, poor things! Christmas is such a wr

atisfaction. "D'you remember the Christmas when you all came on board-was

iral Superintendent's garden with a young fir-tree under my arm.

e, and had served two commissions

done out of their parties-no, Jess, three lumps are conside

Tim, your tea's getting cold. Why shouldn't we have a children

children's party, with wind-sails for them to slit

nition of children, Standish. I seem to remember a certain bridesmaid at the Gunner

"Our lives were a misery for weeks afterwards. He

t. She thought I was ninety, and daft at that. They always do," he add

mes," suggested the Junior Watchkeeper. "That limits the ages to between ten an

p?" inquired the First Lieutenant dourly. "No one seems to have

aughed softly. "We wer

Hornby, that we quite

ered up just for this

y childr

s' missuses, but only

d Cornel

ieutenant c

ibuted the Junior Watchkeeper, "except ourselves. M

ung her hands in mock dismay. "Oh, but mayn't I come

means that you don't count as a grown-up at a children's party," he explained na

"You pay a pretty com

eddened and lapsed i

e a children's party, and I may co

r necks by pushing them down the windsails?" He spoke without bitterness, but as a man who had

ing this tone of lofty detachment, Number One. You're going to do

ny laughter in it. "I don't amuse children, I'm afraid. I

't quite true, is it? You know Jane prays for you nightly, and Corney

make an admirable Fa

im mischievously, "wit

t Nagasaki, in the bazaar. It's got green dragons all over it--"

ing . . ." The Skipper's Missus clapped her hands. "And distribu

e "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (L-N) from the wardroom library, and retire with it to his cabin. His classical education ha