CHAPTER IV
WAR BABIES
"Properly at ease.... Cla.s.s, "Shun! Left turn! Dismiss!"
The dozen or so of flannel-dad Midshipmen composing the cla.s.s sprang stiffly to attention, turned forward, and made off briskly in the direction of the hatchway. The India-rubber Man thrust his hands into the pockets of his flannel trousers and strolled across the quarterdeck to where the Officer of the Watch was standing.
"Tweedledum," he said, elevating his nose and sniffing the keen morning air, "I can smell bacon frying somewhere. So could my cla.s.s: I could see their mouths watering. You might send for the cook and tell him not to do it."
"You"re a dirty bully, Bunje, you know," said the Officer of the Watch reprovingly. "Fancy dragging those unhappy children out of their innocent hammocks at this unearthly hour of the morning to flap their legs and arms about and do "Knees up!" and "Double-arm-bend-and-stretch!"" He raised a gloved hand and rubbed his blue nose. Ash.o.r.e a powdering of snow lay on the distant hills; in the East the sky was flushing with bars of orange and gold athwart the tumbled clouds. An armed drifter, coming in from the open sea, stood out against the light in strong relief. "Here"s Mouldy Jakes coming back from Night Patrol--I bet even he isn"t as cold as I am."
"Rot!" retorted the Physical Trainer. "Do _you_ good, Tweedledum, to hop round a bit on a lovely morning like this!"
"Hop round!" echoed the other. "Hop round!" He looked about him as if searching for a weapon. The dew, which everywhere had frozen during the night, was slowly thawing on the canvas covers of guns and searchlights, dripping from shrouds and yards and aerials.
"Lord alive!" continued the Watchkeeper. "Haven"t I been hopping round this perishing quarterdeck since four a.m. keeping the Morning Watch?
If Tweedledee doesn"t come and relieve me soon I shall die of frostbite and boredom." The India-rubber Man was moving towards the hatchway.
"And if you"re going along to the bathroom, for pity"s sake see there"s some hot water left that I can sit and thaw in."
In the meanwhile the Midshipmen had descended to the cabin-flat where their chests occupied most of the available deck s.p.a.ce. Flushed and breathless with exercise, the majority proceeded to divest themselves of their flannels and, girt with towels, made off for the bathroom.
One, however, flung himself panting on to his chest, and sprawled partly across his own and partly on his neighbour"s.
"I swear this is a bit thick!" he gasped. "I"m not used to this sort of frightfulness." He waved his legs in the air. "I shall get heart disease. Anguis pec--pec---- What"s it called?"
"Peccavi," prompted his neighbour, slipping out of his clothes and donning a great-coat in lieu of a dressing-gown. "Otherwise "The ruddy "eart-burn." Just move your greasy head off my till. I want to get at my razor."
"That"s the worst of these "new brooms""--the victim of heart trouble surveyed his legs anxiously--"I know I"ve lost a couple of stone since this physical training fiend joined. I don"t suppose my people will know me when I go home."
"Well, you aren"t likely to be going home for some time to come," said another, a seraphic-faced nudity contemplating his biceps in the small looking-gla.s.s that adorned the inside of his chest, "so I shouldn"t worry. I say, I"m sweating up a deuce of an arm on me. Shouldn"t wonder if I pulled off the Grand Fleet Light-weights next month," he added modestly, "if this sort of thing goes on. I just mention it in case any of you are thinking of putting your names in." He turned from the gla.s.s, laughing. "Hullo, Mally, going to have a shave, old thing?"
"Yes, if I can get at my razor---- Oh, Bosh, get off my chest--sprawling all over my gear!"
"I"m in a state of acute physical exhaustion. I feel tender and giddy.
I _know_ all this foul exercise is bad for me early in the morning."
The speaker sat up and juggled dexterously with a cake of soap, a sponge and a tooth-brush. "I"m getting rather good at this---- My word, look at Mally"s shaving outfit. One would think he was a sort of Esau--"stead of only having to shave once a blooming week!"
"Are you going to shave, Mally?" queried a voice across the flat.
"Because I"m not sure I shouldn"t be better for a bit of a sc.r.a.pe myself. Can I have a rub at your razor after you?"
"You can have it after me if you swear not to skylark with it," replied the owner. "Only, last time I lent it to you, you shaved your beastly leg----"
"Only for practice," admitted the pet.i.tioner, advancing with a finger and thumb caressing his chin.
"Well it blunted it, anyhow. Come on, I"m going to the bathroom now."
The Gunroom bathroom was situated in another flat, reached via the aft-deck. Here about this hour an intermittent stream of figures in quaint _neglige_ pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed to their toilets. Inside the bathroom itself song and the splashing of water drowned all other sounds. The owner of the enlarged biceps was seated, fakir-wise, cross-legged in one of the shallow, circular baths in a corner, bailing water over himself from an empty cigarette tin.
"Harcourt, old thing," said the shaving enthusiast, who had filled a bath and dragged it alongside his friend, "did you mean what you said just now about the boxing show--are you going to put your name down for the Light-weights?"
The fakir stopped crooning a little song to himself and nodded. "Yes, I"m rather keen on it as a matter of fact. Standish saw me sc.r.a.pping with Green the other night and sent for me afterwards and told me to get fit. I"m going to have a shot at it, I think. Wouldn"t you?"
His friend tested the temperature of the water in his bath with his toe, and got in. "Yes, rather," he replied, and hesitated. "I"m going in for it too," he added.
Harcourt rose and reached for his towel. "_Are_ you, Billy?" For a moment his eyes travelled over the other"s slim form. "What a rag! We may draw each other--anyhow we shall have to sc.r.a.p if we get into the semi-finals. Billy, I believe you"d bash me!" He towelled himself vigorously.
The other shook his head. "You beat me at Dartmouth. But I"m going to have a jolly good shot at it, cully!" He looked up with his face covered with soap-suds and they laughed into each others" eyes.
Breakfast in the Gunroom was, to employ a transatlantic colloquialism, _some_ breakfast.
There was porridge to start with and then a bloater, followed by hashed mutton and cold ham ("for them as likes it," the Messman would say--which meant he pressed it on n.o.body) and marmalade: perhaps an apple or two to wind up with to the everlasting honour of the Vegetable Products Committee who supplied them gratis to the Fleet. Then pipes and cigarettes appeared from lockers, and the temporarily-closed flood-gates of conversation reopened. The Wireless Press Message was discussed and two experts in military strategy proceeded to demonstrate with the aid of two cruet-stands, a tea-spoon, and the Worcester Sauce, the precise condition of affairs on the Western Front. "Mark you,"
said one generously, "I"m not criticising either Haig or Joffre. But it seems to me that we should have pushed _here_"--and upset the Worcester Sauce.
This mishap to the Loos salient was in process of being righted when the door opened and a short, square-shouldered figure, with a wind-reddened face and eyes of a dark, dangerous blue, entered the mess. He came in stamping his feet and blowing on his hands, calling loudly for breakfast the while. "My, there"s a good fug in here," he observed appreciatively, and proceeded to divest himself of a duffle coat, and a pair of night gla.s.ses which were slung round his neck in a leather case. He stumped across to the table, dragging his legs in heavy leather sea-boots rather wearily.
"Am I hungry?" he demanded, insinuating himself with some difficulty between the long form and the table, and sitting down. "Oh, no!
Nothing to speak of. Cold? Not a bit: only frozen stiff. Any sleep last night? Rather! Nearly ten minutes. Porridge, please, and pa.s.s the brown sugar." The remainder of his messmates appeared disposed to return to strategical discussion. "Did we have any fun last night?"
continued the speaker, raising his voice slightly. "Well, nothing to speak of. Only downed a Fritz."
"_Downed_ one?" roared the Mess, galvanised suddenly into rapt interest in the new-comer and all his works.
"Yep. We were Outer Night Patrol last night. Me and Mouldy Jakes. He does make me smile, that official." A plateful of porridge proceeded to pa.s.s rapidly to its last resting place.
"He _might_ have taken me," said one of the others wistfully. "You don"t belong to his Division or his turret or anything."
"It was my turn. You went last time. But you missed something, I can tell you!"
"What d"you mean," said the Sub over the top of his paper. "Just cough up the details and let your beastly breakfast wait."
The Night Patroller extracted the backbone from a bloater with swift dexterity. "Well," he continued, "it was very dark last night and foggy in patches: rum night. Very little wind and no sea. We were right outside and the Engineer sent up to say he thought there was something foul of the propeller. So we stopped and investigated with a boathook. There was a lot of weed and stuff fouling us. We were playing about with it _mit_ boathook for nearly a quarter-of-an-hour, and suddenly old Mouldy Jakes put up his head and sniffed about a bit and muttered "Baccy.""
"He"s got a nose like a hawk," said the Midshipman of that officer"s Division with a tinge of pride in his voice.
The Mess perforce had to possess its soul in patience while the raconteur swiftly disposed of the bloater.
"So I sniffed too, and I could smell it quite plain. We were lying stern to the wind; "sides it wasn"t decent baccy like ours, but sort of Scorp stuff, so we knew it wasn"t one of our fellows smoking. Hashed mutton, please; and another cup of coffee. It was pitch dark and for a moment we couldn"t see a thing. Then, suddenly, right on top of us came a submarine! She was on the surface and there was a fellow on the conning tower and a couple of figures aft. She must have been smelling about on the surface having a smoke and recharging her batteries."
The remainder of the Gunroom had crowded round the speaker, some kneeling on the form with their elbows among the debris of breakfast, others sat on the edge of the table hugging their knees.
"My word, Matt," said one, his eyes dancing, "I bet you got cold feet."
"Cold feet!" snorted the hero of the moment. "There wasn"t time for cold feet. It was too sudden. They just grazed past us, going very slow, and there was a devil of a bobbery. I fancy they thought they were properly in the _consomme_. A trap or something. Anyhow the two braves aft lost their heads and jumped overboard, and the bird in the conning tower disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box--properly rattled."
"What price old Mouldy?" asked the listeners. "Utterly unmoved, I suppose! Lord, I"d love to have seen him!"