"Good luck to you," I called out after him, "and thank you for a most instructive twenty minutes!"
He looked back over his shoulder; his bright red face broadened into a huge smile, and he deliberately winked twice.
I had to hurry away, for already the sailor nearly had his arm round his housemaid's waist, while my Anne, at least half an hour late, was panting wearily towards where I stood.
"Who is your sailor friend?" was her first question.
"Ananias the Second," I answered, for at the back of my mind I had a vague suspicion that the first lieutenant of the Jackass was not the only member of her ship's company who delighted in pulling people's legs.
[1] A "Bradbury" is one of the new £1 notes. So called from the signature at the bottom.
[2] "Jimmy the One," a lower-deck nickname for the First Lieutenant.
"BUNTING"
He was a short, thick-set, ruddy-faced, shrewd-eyed little person, who wore on the left sleeve of his blue jumper two good-conduct badges and the single anchor denoting his "Leading" rate, and on his right the crossed flags denoting his calling, together with a star above and below which signified that he was something of an expert at his job. In short, he was a Leading Signalman of His Majesty's Navy. His name I need not mention. To his friends he sometimes answered to "Nutty," but more often to "Buntin'."
It was always a mystery to me why he had not come to wear the crossed anchors and crown of a Yeoman of Signals, for his qualifications certainly seemed to fit him for promotion to petty-officer's rank, while his habits and character in the last ship in which I knew him were all that could be desired.