passed us, before we were in the open sea. Then they waited for us
like dogs who have run ahead of their master, and finally took up
positions one on either side of us. We felt it was now a poor look
out for all enemy submarines.

"Well, ta-ta, England," said Doe, looking towards a long strip of
Devon and Cornwall. "See, there, Rupert? Falmouth's there somewhere.
In a year's time I'll be back, with you as my guest. We'll have the
great times over again. We'll go mackerel-fishing, when the wind is
fresh. We'll put a sail on the _Lady Fal_, and blow down the breeze
on the estuary. We'll--"

"And when's all this to be?" broke in a languid voice. We turned and
saw our exhausted young table companion, Jimmy Doon, who had arrived
on deck, yawning, to assume the duties of Officer on Submarine
Watch.

"After the war, sure," answered Doe.

Mr. Doon looked pained at such folly.

"My tedious lad," he said, "do I gather that you are in the
cavalry?"

"You do not, Jimmy," said Doe.

"Nor yet in the artillery?"

"No, Jimmy."

"Then I conceive you to be in the infantry."

"You conceive aright, Jimmy."

"Well, then, don't be an unseemly ass. There'll be no 'after the
war' for the infantry."

"In that case," laughed Doe, who had been offensively classical,
ever since he won the Horace Prize, "_Ave, atque vale_, England."

After gazing down the wake of the _Rangoon_ a little longer, we
decided that England was finished with, and returned to our cabins
to dress in silence. And then, having read through twice the
directions provided with Mothersill's Sea-sick Remedy, we went down
to breakfast.

At this meal the chief entertainment was the arrival of Major Hardy,
limping from injuries sustained the previous night, and with an eye
the colour of a Victoria plum. "The old sport!" whispered the
subalterns. And that's just what he was; for he was a major, who
could run amok like any second lieutenant, and he was forty, if a
day.

In the afternoon, when the sea was very lonely, the destroyers left
us, which we thought amazingly thin of them. So we searched out
Jimmy Doon, and told him that, as Officer on Submarine Watch, he
ought to swim alongside in their place.

Jimmy was much aggrieved, it appeared, at being detailed for the
tiresome duty of looking for submarines. It was the unseemly limit,
he said, to watch all day for a periscope, and it would be the very
devil suddenly to see one. Besides, he had hoped that by losi