rs,
evidently by an artifice learned of much practice. Finally his
jauntily be-capped head vanished, and thereafter from the deeps below
his cheery voice reached me.

"I have whisky, sherry and rum--mind your head and take your choice!"

I descended into a narrow chamber divided by a longish table and
flanked by berths with a chest of drawers beneath each. At the
further end of this somewhat small and dim apartment and
northeasterly of the table was a small be-polished stove wherein a
fire burned; in a rack against a bulkhead were some half-dozen
rifles, above our head was a rack for cutlasses, and upon the table
was a decanter of whisky he had unearthed from some mysterious
recess, and he was very full of apologies because the soda had run
out.

So we sat awhile and quaffed and talked, during which he showed me a
favourite rifle, small of bore but of high power and exquisite
balance, at sight of which I straightway broke the tenth commandment.
He also showed me a portrait of his wife (which I likewise admired),
a picture taken by himself and by him developed in some dark nook
aboard.

After this, our whisky being duly despatched, we crawled into the air
again, to find we were approaching a certain jetty. And now, in the
delicate manoeuvre of bringing to and making fast, my companions,
myself and all else were utterly forgotten, as with voice and hand he
issued order on order until, gently as a nesting bird, the destroyer
came to her berth and was made fast. Hereupon, having shaken hands
all round, he handed us over to other naval men as cheery as he, who
in due season brought us to the depot ship, where luncheon awaited
us.

I have dined in many places and have eaten with many different folk,
but never have I enjoyed a meal more than this, perhaps because of
the padre who presided at my end of the table. A manly cleric this,
bright-eyed, resolute of jaw but humorous of mouth, whose white
choker did but seem to offset the virility of him. A man, I judged,
who preached little and did much--a sailor's padre in very truth.

He told me how, but for an accident, he would have sailed with
Admiral Cradock on his last, ill-fated cruise, where so many died
that Right and Justice might endure.

"Poor chaps!" said I.

"Yes," said he, gently, "and yet it is surely a noble thing to--die
greatly!"

And surely, surely for all those who in cause so just have met Death
unflinching and unafraid, who have taken hold upon tha