s that be perhaps did not regard her with such rose-tinted
optimism, but for all that, were evidently of the opinion that she was
still capable of useful work, and kept her constantly at sea
accordingly.

Exactly what her function was I had better not say, but she always
seemed to be on the spot when things happened, and had assisted at the
"strafing" of Hun submarines, and had been under fire a great many more
times than some of her younger sisters, many of whom were craft at
least three times her size, eight knots more speed, and infinitely
better armed and more seaworthy.

So it was not to be imagined that the _Rapier_, ancient though she was,
suffered from senile decay.

* * * * *

"Curse this weather," the Lieutenant muttered, wrinkling his eyes in a
vain endeavour to see through the murk. "We've been forty-eight hours
on patrol, and now we're due to go into harbour this beastly fog comes
down and delays us. It IS the limit!"

Pettigrew, the Sub-Lieutenant, agreed. "We shall have to coal when we
arrive," he observed mournfully. "That'll take us two hours, and by
the time we've finished, made fast to the buoy, had our baths, and made
ourselves fairly presentable, it'll be two o'clock. I take it we go to
sea at the usual time this evening, sir?"

Langdon nodded. "Bet your life!" he said with a sigh. "We shall be
off again at eight p.m. I was looking forward to having a decent lunch
ashore for once," he added regretfully, "but now this beastly fog's
gone and put the hat on it. Lord! I'm fed up to the neck with the
grub on board!"

"Tinned salmon fish-cakes for breakfast," murmured the Sub. "Curried
salmon for lunch, and tinned rabbit pie for dinner. My sainted aunt!
The Ritz and Carlton aren't in it!"

The skipper laughed.

The fog had come down at dawn, and now, halfway through the forenoon,
the weather was still as thick as ever; so thick, indeed, that it was
barely possible to see more than a hundred yards through the white,
cotton-wool-like pall. It was one of those breathless, steamy days in
mid-July. The sea was glassily calm, while the sun, a mere molten blot
in the haze overhead, whose heat was unmitigated by the least suspicion
of a breeze, was still sufficiently powerful to make it most
uncomfortably warm. Altogether the torrid clamminess of the
atmosphere, and its distinct earthy flavour, reminded one irresistibly
of the interior of a greenhouse.

It wa