"Really I--I hardly know, sir."
I asked him if at such times one was not inclined to feel a trifle shaken, a little nervous, or, might one say, afraid?
"Yes, sir," he agreed politely, "I suppose so--only, you see, we were all too jolly busy to think about it!"
"Oh!" said I, taking out a cigarette, "too busy! Of course! I see!
And where is the Captain during action, as a rule?"
"As a matter of fact he stood--just where you are, sir. Stood there the whole six hours it was hottest."
"Here!" I exclaimed. "But it is quite exposed."
My Midshipmite, being a hardy veteran in world-shaking naval battles, permitted himself to smile.
"But, you see, sir," he gently explained, "it"s really far safer out here than being shut up in a gun-turret or--or down below, on account of er--er--you understand, sir?"
"Oh, quite!" said I, and thereafter thought awhile, and, receiving his ready permission, lighted my cigarette. "I think," said I, as we prepared to descend from our lofty perch, "I"m sure it"s just--er--that kind of thing that brought one Francis Drake out of so very many tight corners. By the way--do you smoke?"
My Midshipmite blushingly confessed he did, and helped himself from my case with self-conscious fingers.
Reaching the main deck in due season, I found I had contrived to miss the Chief Gunner"s lecture on the great guns, whereupon who so agitated and bitterly apologetic as my Midshipmite, who there and then ushered me hastily down more awkward stairs and through narrow openings into a place of glistening, gleaming polish and furbishment where, beside the shining breech of a monster gun, muscular arm negligently leaning thereon, stood a round-headed, broad-shouldered man, he the presiding genius of this (as I afterwards found) most sacred place.
His lecture was ended and he was addressing a few well-chosen closing remarks in slightly bored fashion (he had showed off his ponderous playthings to divers kings, potentates and bigwigs at home and abroad, I learned) when I, though properly awed by the gun but more especially by the gunner, ventured to suggest that a gun that had been through three engagements and had been fired so frequently must necessarily show some signs of wear. The gunner glanced at me, and I shall never forget that look. With his eyes on mine, he touched a lever in negligent fashion, whereon silently the great breech slipped away with a hiss and whistle of air, and with his gaze always fixed he suggested I might glance down the bore.
Obediently I stooped, whereon he spake on this wise:
"If you cast your heyes to the right abaft the breech you"ll observe slight darkening of riflin"s. Now glancin" t"left of piece you"ll per-ceive slight darkening of riflin"s. Now casting your heyes right forrard you"ll re-mark slight roughening of riflin"s towards muzzle of piece and--there y"are, sir. One hundred and twenty-seven times she"s been fired by my "and and good for as many more--both of us.
Arternoon, gentlemen, and--thank ye!"
Saying which he touched a lever in the same negligent fashion, the mighty breech block slid back into place, and I walked forth humbly into the outer air.
Here I took leave of my Midshipmite, who stood among a crowd of his fellows to watch me down the gangplank, and I followed whither I was led very full of thought, as well I might be, until rousing, I found myself on the deck of that famous _Warspite_, which our foes are so comfortably certain lies a shattered wreck off Jutland. Here I presently fell into discourse with a tall lieutenant, with whom I went alow and aloft; he showed me c.o.c.kpit, infirmary and engine-room; he showed me the wonder of her steering apparatus, and pointed to the small hand-wheel in the bowels of this huge ship whereby she had been steered limping into port. He directed my gaze also to divers vast sh.e.l.l holes and rents in her steel sides, now very neatly mended by steel plates held in place by many large bolts. Wherever we went were sailors, by the hundred it seemed, and yet I was struck by the size and airy s.p.a.ciousness between decks.
"The strange thing about the Hun," said my companion, as we mounted upward again, "is that he is so amazingly accurate with his big guns.
Anyway, as we steamed into range he registered direct hits time after time, and his misses were so close the spray was flying all over us.
Yes, Fritz is wonderfully accurate, but"--here my companion paused to flick some dust from his braided cuff--"but when we began to knock him about a bit it was funny how it rattled him--quite funny, you know. His shots got wider and wider, until they were falling pretty well a mile wide--very funny!" and the lieutenant smiled dreamily.
"Fritz will shoot magnificently if you only won"t shoot back. But really I don"t blame him for thinking he"d sunk us; you see, there were six of "em potting away at us at one time--couldn"t see us for spray--"
"And how did you feel just then?" I enquired.
"Oh, rotten! You see I"d jammed my finger in some tackle for one thing, and just then the light failed us. We"d have bagged the lot if the light had held a little longer. But next time--who knows? Care for a cup of tea?"
"Thanks!" I answered. "But where are the others?"
"Oh, by Jove! I fancy your party"s gone--I"ll see!"
This proving indeed the case, I perforce took my leave, and with a midshipman to guide me, presently stepped aboard a boat which bore us back beneath the shadow of that mighty bridge stark against the evening sky.
Riding citywards through the deepening twilight I bethought me of the Midshipmite who, amid the roar and tumult of grim battle, had been "too busy" to be afraid; of the round-headed gunner who, like his gun, was ready and eager for more, and of the tall lieutenant who, with death in many awful shapes shrieking and crashing about him, felt "rotten" by reason of a bruised finger and failing light.
And hereupon I felt proud that I, too, was a Briton, of the same breed as these mighty ships and the splendid fellows who man them--these Keepers of the Seas, who in battle as in tempest do their duty unseen, unheard, because it is their duty.
Therefore, all who are so blest as to live within these isles take comfort and courage from this--that despite raging tempest and desperate battle, we, trusting in the justice of our cause, in these iron men and mighty ships, may rest secure, since truly worthy are these, both ships and men, of the glorious traditions of the world"s most glorious navy.
But, as they do their duty by Britain and the Empire, let it be our inestimable privilege as fellow Britons to do our duty as n.o.bly both to the Empire and--to them.
VII
A HOSPITAL
The departure platform of a great station (for such as have eyes to see) is always a sad place, but nowadays it is a place of tragedy.
He was tall and thin--a boyish figure--and his khaki-clad arm was close about her slender form. The hour was early and their corner bleak and deserted, thus few were by to heed his stiff-lipped, agonised smile and the pa.s.sionate clasp of her hands, or to hear her heartbreaking sobs and his brave words of comfort; and I, shivering in the early morning wind, hasted on, awed by a grief that made the grey world greyer.
Very soon London was behind us, and we were whirling through a countryside wreathed in mist wherein I seemed to see a girl"s tear-wet cheeks and a boy"s lips that smiled so valiantly for all their pitiful quiver; thus I answered my companion somewhat at random and the waiter"s proffer of breakfast was an insult. And, as I stared out at misty trees and hedgerow I began as it were to sense a grimness in the very air--the million-sided tragedy of war; behind me the weeping girl, before me and looming nearer with every mile, the Somme battle-front.
At a table hard by a group of clear-eyed subalterns were chatting and laughing over breakfast, and in their merriment I, too, rejoiced. Yet the grimness was with me still as we rocked and swayed through the wreathing mist.
But trains, even on a foggy morning, have a way of getting there at last, so, in due season, were docks and more docks, with the funnels of ships, and beyond these misty shapes upon a misty sea, the gaunt outlines of destroyers that were to convoy us Francewards. Hereupon my companion, K., a hardened traveller, inured to customs, pa.s.sports and the like noxious things, led me through a jostling throng, his long legs striding rapidly when they found occasion, past rank upon rank of soldiers returning to duty, very neat and orderly, and looking, I thought, a little grim.
Presently the warps were cast off and very soon we were in the lift and roll of the Channel; the white cliffs slowly faded, the wind freshened, and I, observing that every one had donned life belts, forthwith girded on one of the clumsy contrivances also.
In mid-channel it blew hard and the destroyers seemed to be making heavy weather of it, now lost in spray, now showing a glistening height of freeboard, and, as I watched, remembering why they were there, my c.u.mbrous life belt grew suddenly very comfortable.
Came a growing density on the horizon, a blue streak that slowly and little by little grew into roofs, chimneys, docks and shipping, and France was before us, and it was with almost reverent hands that I laid aside my clumsy cork jacket and was presently on French soil.
And yet, except for a few chattering porters, the air rang with good English voices hailing each other in cheery greetings, and khaki was everywhere. But now, as I followed my companion"s long legs past these serried, dun-coloured ranks, it seemed to me that they held themselves straighter and looked a little more grim even than they had done in England.
I stood, lost in the busy scene before me, when, hearing K."s voice, I turned to be introduced to Captain R., tall, bright-eyed, immaculate, and very much master of himself and circ.u.mstances it seemed, for, despite crowded customs office, he whisked us through and thence before sundry officials, who glared at me and my pa.s.sport, signed, stamped, returned it and permitted me to go.
After luncheon we drove to a great base hospital where I was introduced to the Colonel-Surgeon in charge, a quiet man, who took us readily under his able guidance. And indeed a huge place was this, a place for me of awe and wonder, the more so as I learned that the greater part of it had come into being within one short year.
It lies beside the sea, this hospital, where clean winds blow, its neat roadways are bordered by green lawns and flanked by long, low buildings that reach away in far perspective, buildings of corrugated iron, of wood and asbestos, a very city, but one where there is no riot and rush of traffic, truly a city of peace and brooding quietude.
And as I looked upon this silent city, my awe grew, for the Colonel, in his gentle voice, spoke of death and wounds, of sh.e.l.l-shock, nerve-wrack and insanity; but he told also of wonderful cures, of miracles performed on those that should have died, and of reason and sanity won back.
"And you?" I questioned, "have you done many such wonders?"
"Few!" he answered, and sighed. "You see, my duties now are chiefly administrative," and he seemed gently grieved that it should be so.
He brought us into wards, long, airy and many-windowed, places of exquisite neatness and order, where calm-faced sisters were busied, and smart, soft-treading orderlies came and went. Here in white cots lay many bandaged forms, some who, propped on pillows, watched us bright-eyed and nodded in cheery greeting; others who lay so ominously still.
But as I pa.s.sed between the long rows of cots, I was struck with the look of utter peace and content on so many of the faces and wondered, until, remembering the h.e.l.l whence they had so lately come, I thought I understood. Thus, bethinking me of how these dire hurts had been come by, I took off my hat, and trod between these beds of silent suffering as softly as I could, for these men had surely come "out of great tribulation."
In another ward I saw numbers of German wounded, most of them bearded; many there were who seemed weakly and undersized, and among them were many grey heads, a very motley company. These, the Colonel informed us, received precisely the same treatment as our own wounded, even to tobacco and cigarettes.