iful way. "It's
the changing of the acts."

The rain began to fall in torrents, and the sky periodically was lit
by flashes of an electric storm. And then we suddenly became
conscious of new flashes playing among those of the lightning.

"The guns?" I murmured.

"Sure thing," answered Doe.

A sharp shiver of delight ran through both our bodies. Our eyes at
last were watching war. To think of it! We were off the world-famous
Peninsula!

And it was pitch-darkness, with flashing lights everywhere! From
Navy and Army both, searchlights swept the sea and sky, shut
themselves off, and opened anew. Signals in Morse sparkled with
their dots and dashes. From the distant trenches star-shells rose in
the air, and seemed to hang suspended for a space, while we caught
the rapid tick-tick of far-away rifle fire.

"It's a blinkin' firework show," said a Tommy's voice; and Doe
announced in my ear: "Rupert, I'm inspired! I've an idea for a poem.
Our lives are a pantomime, and the Genius of the Peninsula is the
Demon King; and here we have the flashes and thunder that always
illumine the horrors of his cave.... Jumping Jupiter! What's that?"

A tremendous report had gone off near us; a brilliant light had
shown up the lines of a cruiser; a shell had shrieked past us and
whistled away to explode among the Turks; and a loud, and swelling
murmur of amazement and admiration, rising from the _Redbreast_, had
burst into a thousand laughs.

"Fate laughs at my poem," grumbled Doe.

The rain raced down: and, at about ten o'clock, we learned that, for
the first time in the history of the _Redbreast_, it would be too
rough for anyone to land. We must therefore spend the night aboard,
and take the risk of disembarking under the enemy's guns in the
morning. So, wooing sleep, we huddled into the chairs of the saloon,
and wished for the day. We slept through troubled dreams, and woke
to a gathering calm on the sea. As our eager eyes swept the view by
daylight, we found that we were in a semicircular and unsheltered
bay, whose choppy water harboured two warships that were desultorily
firing. Near us a derelict trawler lay half submerged.

The truth broke upon us: we were floating at anchor in Suvla Bay.

CHAPTER X

SUVLA AND HELLES AT LAST

Sec.1

The morning sun was up as we lay in Suvla Bay. It lit the famous
battlefield, so that we saw in a shining picture the hills, up which
the invading Britons had rushed to win the step