Ollenor, Reedham, and Norgate, the midshipman who had kept the afternoon watch, roared with laughter at this.
“That’s good!” the Sub exclaimed. “The Wardroom would rejoice to know that Wickham was mistaken for one of themselves. And you—what’s your name?”
“Cunwell.”
“And you, Cunwell, what did you do?”
“Oh, I went with the rest of them; but, of course, I knew——”
“Of course you did. I see we have a smart young officer here, Ollenor, competing for a medal.”
The dog-watches passed without event. The Sub having gone to his cabin and the others on to the upper deck, Lynwood was left in the Gunroom with Reedham and Fane-Herbert. They fell at once to a discussion of personalities and prospects, and Reedham, wearing the quiet smile that was habitual to him, answered questions, volunteered information, and gasped at examples of ingenuousness. The Sub, it appeared, was named Winton-Black. Reedham described him as a good enough fellow if ever he did anything—which happened infrequently. He was to leave the ship in a few months’ time, and was careless of what happened in the interval. Almost all his spare time was spent in his cabin, so that he seldom appeared in the Gunroom except for meals.
“Then we ought to be all right,” said Fane-Herbert.
“Oh, don’t you believe it. You would be much better off, I assure you, if Winton-Black did put in an appearance. He’s an easygoing old thing, as lazy as they are made, and it would be too much effort for him to chase you much. But his being away leaves the senior snotties’ hands free, and the five seniors we are going to have include some pretty tough customers. I believe Krame, the senior of the lot, who will arrange all our duties and dispose our lives, is—well, Ollenor knows more of him than I do, and he says he’s as bad as we could hope for. Howdray has a name through the fleet—Bull Howdray. He’s usually tight, and pretty violent. Tintern is musical—a bit of an artist, but untrained, of course—quite a decent sort in a mild way; but he sozzles to console himself for the might-have-beens. The other two, Elstone and Banford-Smith, I don’t know much about.”
“But how will you intermediate fellows come off, Reedham?”