the North Sea, they sang, whistled and laughed gaily.

They were going back where they would get another chance at the enemy,
should he again venture from his lair.

Forward, upon the upper deck, stood two young officers, who peered into
the darkness ahead.

"To my mind," said one, "this beats a submarine. Just look about you.
Consider the size of this battleship! Look at her armament! Think of
the number of men aboard!"

"You may be right," returned the second officer, "but we have had some
grand times beneath the sea. We have been to places and seen things
that otherwise would have been impossible."

"True enough; but at the same time, when it came to a question of
fight, we have had to slink about like a cat in the night, afraid to
show ourselves to larger and heavier adversaries. Now, aboard the
_Queen Mary_, that will be done away with. Now we are the cat rather
than the mouse."

"It may be that I shall come to your way of thinking in time," said the
second speaker, "but at this moment I would rather have the familiar
feel of a submarine beneath my heel. I would feel more at home there.
Besides, we have lost one thing by being assigned to the _Queen Mary_
that hits me rather hard."

"I know what you mean," said the first speaker. "We indeed have lost
the companionship of a gallant commander. Captain Raleigh undoubtedly
is a first class officer--otherwise he would not be in command of the
_Queen Mary_--but we are bound to miss Lord Hastings."

"Indeed we are. Yet, as he told us, things cannot always be as we
would like to have them. He was called for other service, as you know,
and he did his best for us. That is why we find ourselves here as minor
officers."

"Yes; and it's a whole lot different than being the second and third in
command."

At that moment another young officer hurried by.

"Coming, Templeton? Coming, Chadwick?" he asked as he passed.

"Where?" demanded the two friends.

"Didn't you hear the call for mess?"

"No; By Jove! and I'm hungry, too," said the young officer addressed as
Templeton. "Come along, Frank. We have been so busy talking here that
we had forgotten all about the demands of the inner man."

The two hurried after the officer who had accosted them; and while they
are attending to the wants of the inner man, as Templeton termed their
appetites, we will take the time to explain how these two lads came to
be aboard the giant battleship, steaming into the North Sea in sea