d
done no end of heroic things, and saved Bullace senior from being
killed. His pater told him, so I know it's all right. But wasn't it a
joke you two should be on the same ship?"

Martin looked up at his old schoolfellow. He had suddenly become a
person of importance in the well-known old haunts where he had learned
and played only as one of the schoolboys.

"It wasn't much of a joke sometimes," said he. "I thought at first that
I was glad to see a face I knew. But there were lots of times after
that when I _didn't_ think it."

"Wasn't old Bullfrog amiable, then?"

"He was never particularly partial to me, you know," answered Martin.
"The first term I was at school--before you came--I remember I caught
him out at a cricket match. He was always so sure of making top score!
He called me an impudent youngster in those days."

"He never was too good to you, I remember. I was one of the chaps he
let alone."

"Well, he went on calling me an impudent youngster," continued Martin,
"and all that sort of thing--and he tried to set the other fellows
against me. Oh, it isn't all jam in the Royal Navy! You haven't left
school when you go _there_, and the gunroom isn't always just exactly
paradise, you know! And if your seniors try to make it hot for you,
why--they can!"

"So you and Bullfrog didn't exactly hit it off?"

"Oh, well, he was sub-lieutenant this last voyage, and you can't stand
up to your senior officer as you can to your schoolfellows, don't you
see?"

There was a minute's silence, broken by an eager request. "But tell us
about the battle. What did it feel like to be there? How was it old
Bullfrog let you go at all?"

"He hadn't the ordering of _that_, thank goodness," said Martin
fervently. "And I was jolly glad he hadn't! We had some excitement
getting those big guns along, I can tell you! The roads weren't just
laid out for that game."

"Well, go on," said another eager voice. "Then one day we came upon the
enemy, and there was a stand-up fight, you know. How did it feel?
Well, there wasn't much thinking about it. You just knew that you were
ready to blaze at them, and they were popping at you from their
entrenchments; and that you jolly well meant to give them the worst of
it."

"Well, about Bullfrog?"

"Oh, that was nothing," said Martin, reddening. "He must have got
excited or something, for he took a step forward, putting himself in
full view, and just then I saw what he di