Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 15, 2025
"Just taking in provisions in case I have to spend the week-end on a raft. What's your action station?" "Fore-top," was the reply. "Taking notes of the action. Now, have I got everything? Thermos flask watch note-book glasses right! En avant, mon brave!" Thorogood reached the 6-inch battery breathless, and found the guns' crews busy tricing up their mess-tables overhead.
"Singing 'I'm afraid to go home in the dark," interposed the India-rubber Man dryly. He got down off the table and stretched his arms. "Well, I shan't be sorry to get some sleep." "Sleep!" echoed Thorogood. "You ought to see the stokers' mess-deck. The watch-off have just come up from below after sixteen hours in the stokeholds.
Now, however, stripped of awnings, with bare decks, stark as gladiators, sombre and terrible, they conveyed a relentless significance heightened by the desolation of their surroundings. From the offing came the rumble of heavy gunfire. "Don't be alarmed," said Thorogood to the India-rubber Man, who had turned in the direction of the sound; "we haven't missed the bus!"
"Thorogood, surely! Come in, old lad. What are you doing aboard the lugger D'you know Standish?" The new-comer nodded a greeting, acknowledging the introduction. "Station-mates in the East Indies, weren't we?" said Standish. "That's right," replied the other. "I remember you: we were both in camp together way back in the 'Naughty Naughts. We used to call you the India-rubber Man Bunje for short."
"They're out on the starboard quarter," replied the late Officer of the Watch. "You can't see them because of this cursed mist, but they're there." "Strikes me this afternoon watch is going to be more of a faith cure than a rest cure as the Pilot suggests," grumbled Thorogood. "Battle-cruisers somewhere ahead, Cruisers invisible in the mist, Light Cruisers "
Mouldy Jakes deposited his bags and rug strap on the platform and surveyed the scene with mournful pride. "Good old Navy!" he observed to the India-rubber Man, while Thorogood went in search of food. "Good old firm! Father and mother and ticket collector and supplier of ham-sandwiches to us all. Who wouldn't sell his little farm and go to sea?"
The men near it sprang away or lay down as usual, but the wounded man lay in such a position, with his shoulders raised by a little knoll of earth, that he could not escape, and had not strength even to move. With a look of horror he gazed at the hissing shell. Bob Thorogood saw this all at a glance.
The Young Doctor, who was leaning against the overmantel of the stove warming himself, crossed over to Thorogood with an expression of portentous solemnity on his face. "James," he said, and laid a hand on the other's shoulder, "before you get busy on the wassail-bowl, my lad, I should like to remind you that the boat's crew will commence training for the Regatta at 7 A.M. to-morrow.
Useful fellow to travel with, Thorogood." Submarine. Across the stormy North Sea came the first faint streak of dawn. It overtook a long line of Destroyers rolling landward with battered bridge-screens and salt-crusted funnels; it met a flotilla of mine-sweeping Sloops, labouring patiently out to their unending task.
If there is anyone watching us, it will give the whole show away." Sir William Thorogood surveyed the harbour with an expressionless countenance. "I consider that having donned these unsavoury garments did Janet bake them thoroughly, by the way? I have already forfeited my self-respect quite sufficiently. How much of the circuit have you got off the drum?" "Six fathoms."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking