“Well done, you people!” he exclaimed.  “Hullo Granet!  Have you brought the girls down?”

“In the most wonderful racing car you ever saw!” Geraldine told him, as they climbed up the gangway.  “We shouldn’t have been here for hours if we had waited for the train.”

“I met Captain Granet this morning by accident,” Olive explained, as she stepped on deck, “and he insisted on bringing us down.”

“I hope I’m not in the way at all?” Granet asked anxiously.  “If I am, you have only to say the word and put me on shore, and I’ll wait, with pleasure, until the young ladies come off.  I have a lot of pals down here, too, I could look up.”

“Don’t be silly,” Conyers replied.  “Our dear old lady friend Thomson isn’t here to worry so I think we can make you free of the ship.  Come along down and try a cocktail.  Mind your heads.  We’re not on a battleship, you know.  You will find my quarters a little cramped, I’m afraid.”

They drank cocktails cheerfully, and afterwards Geraldine exclaimed, taking a long breath.  “If Olive weren’t so fearfully in love, she’d be suffocated.”

Granet paused and looked before him with a puzzled frown.

“What in heaven’s name is this?”

Exactly opposite to them was an erection of light framework, obviously built around some hidden object for purposes of concealment.  A Marine was standing on guard before it, with drawn cutlass.  Granet was in the act of addressing him when an officer ran lightly down the fore part of the ship, and saluted.

“Very sorry, sir,” he said, “but would you mind keeping to the other side?  This deck is closed, for the present.”

“What on earth have you got there?” Granet asked good-humouredly,—­“that is if it’s anything a landsman may know about?”

The young officer piloted them across to the other side.

“It’s just a little something we are not permitted to talk about just now,” he replied.  “I didn’t know the commander expected any visitors to-day or we should have had it roped off.  Anything I can show you on this deck?” he inquired politely.

“Nothing at all, thanks,” Geraldine assured him.  “We’ll just stroll about for a little time.”

They leaned over the rail together.  The young officer saluted and withdrew.  A freshening breeze blew in their faces and the sunshine danced upon the foam-flecked sea.  The harbour was lively with small craft, an aeroplane was circling overhead, and out in the Roads several warships were lying anchored.

“I was in luck this morning,” Granet asserted.

“So were we,” Geraldine replied.  “I never enjoyed motoring more.  Your new car is wonderful.”

“She is a beauty, isn’t she?” Granet assented enthusiastically.  “What she could touch upon fourth speed I wouldn’t dare to say.  We were going over sixty plenty of times this morning, and yet one scarcely noticed it.  You see, she’s so beautifully hung.”