d in strong force at Suvla Bay and
penetrated seven miles inland. Ends._"

A new landing, hurrah! April 25th over again! The miracle of Helles
repeated at Suvla! Out with the maps to study the strategy of the
move! The map showed us Suvla Bay far up the coast of the Peninsula,
a long way behind Achi Baba. We measured seven miles, and decided
that the Turks' communications with Achi Baba must have been cut.
"Curse it," said an enthusiast, "we're just too late." We had
visions of the Turkish Army flying from the Helles front in frantic
efforts to escape the surrounding threatened by this landing in
their rear. We saw them abandoning their impregnable positions at
Achi Baba, abandoning the forts of the Narrows, and retreating, if
they could elude destruction, upon Constantinople.

And while the strategists on deck were getting delirious in their
prophecies, the ship steered a path round two outlying islets, and
entered the deep indentation in Lemnos Island, which is the mighty,
hill-locked harbour of Mudros. A little French destroyer, pearl-grey
in the evening light, steamed past us, and the French sailors waved
their arms, and danced a welcome to this troopship of their allies.
The _Rangoon_ yelled at them: "What price Suvla?" Some English
sailors, towed past in coal barges, asked us whether we were
downhearted, and we called back: "NO! What--price--SUVLA! Are we
going to win? YES!"

Now, I ask you, have the subalterns an excuse, or have they not, for
a rough-house this night? It's their last night aboard, for
to-morrow morning the smaller boats will come and carry them to the
deadly Peninsula: and it's the evening that has brought the news of
the Suvla landing. Excuse or not, they fetch the money out of their
pockets at dinner, and order the champagne before the soup is off
the table. Jimmy Doon, whipping the golden cap off his magnum of
"bubbly wine," says: "I've the horrible feeling I shall be dead this
time to-morrow. Pass your glasses, damn you. Cheerioh! Many 'appy
returns from the Great War--some day." "Cheerioh, Jimmy," we
acknowledge. "'Appy days!"

And, when the hundred subalterns, who form the first sitting at
dinner, vacate their places at the tables to make room for the
seniors, who come in state to the second sitting, anyone who sees
them rushing upstairs to the lounge, the bar, and the piano, knows
that there will be noise before the clock is an hour older. It
begins in the lounge: but the impulse of