uest's spirits gave no more evidence of
an upward tendency than they had indoors. The trio walked, via the sea
front, to the gardens on top of the cliffs that overlooked the harbour.
Joe directed the conversation; it was largely concerned with battle and
bloodshed.

"Mr. Standish, what do you do in action?" he asked presently.

"Nothing," was the reply. "I just put my fingers in my ears and shut
my eyes--I'm the officer of the after turret. But when it's all over I
put on overalls and crawl about the works on my stomach and get a dirty
face with the best of them. A wit once defined a turret as a bundle of
tricks done up in armour."

"Is it thick armour?" asked Betty.

"They tell me it is--fellows on board who pretend to know everything.
But I suspect that to be a mere ruse to get me to stay inside it."

Joe sighed. "I _do_ envy you," he said. "Everyone seems to have
something to do, 'cept me. Even Betty here----"

The Indiarubber Man turned his head sharply. "Why, what----"

Betty turned pink. "I'm going to nurse--on the East Coast. My old
school has been turned into a hospital. And the other day Miss
Dacre--she was the principal, you know, and she is nursing there
now--wrote to mother and said they would take me."

"But," said the Indiarubber Man, "d'you think you could stick
it--hacking off fellows' legs, and that sort of thing? Blessed if I
could do it."

"Oh, yes," was the calm reply. "I passed all my exams, a long time
ago--in fact, I've been working down here at this hospital for the last
six months. We learned a good deal at school, you see. Home nursing,
and so on."

"Did you, by Jove! Simple dishes for the sick-room and spica bandages,
and all the rest of it?"

Betty laughed. "Oh, yes, all that."

The Indiarubber Man glanced at her small, capable hands, and from them
to the dainty profile beside him. "Well," he said, "if I get bent by
an eight-inch shell I shall know where to come."

Betty laughed again; "I should have to look that up in a book, then,
before I nursed you. It might mean complications!"

"It might," replied the Indiarubber Man.

From the town below, where here and there a window went suddenly aflare
with the reflection of the sunset-light, there drifted up to them the
faint, clear call of a bugle. Another took it up along the front, and
yet another. The Indiarubber Man raised his head abruptly.

"That's the recall!" he said, and turned towards the ships.