“Stow thet, Tom,” said he with a grin, digging me in the ribs, much to the amusement of one of the Irish girls who was near us, at whom Mick winked. “Sure, thet wor ownly me joke. Th’room pogue, ma colleen ogue?”
The girl near, to whom he addressed the latter part of his speech, which sounded like Greek to me, blushed and laughed, turning away shyly.
“Hullo!” I exclaimed. “What does that mean, Mick?”
“Faith, it manes ‘Give me a kiss, me purty gurl,’ Tom,” he answered, bursting into a roar of laughter. “It’s a quishton ye’ll foind moighty convanient to axe some-toimes whin ye’re in these parts, mabouchal; an’ Oi’d advise ye to larn the languish ez soon ez ye can.”
We remained at Bantry, coaling and preparing for action, for about a week, at the end of which time, ‘war’ being declared between the rival fleets engaged in the Manoeuvres, we filed out of the bay in single column line ahead and started off for the fray; the fleet I was with having some exciting episodes in the chops of the Channel during the time the mimic campaign lasted, in chasing and capturing the ships of the ‘enemy,’ our cruiser being a very fast vessel and easily able to overhaul most of their craft hand over hand.
It was good fun too—almost like real fighting; and we got so eager at the game, that, on one occasion when we put into Plymouth Sound and found one of the ships belonging to the other side there, our fellows nearly had a row with the men belonging to her.
This shows how very thoroughly we entered into the sport.
It was the end of August when we came back from the Manoeuvres; and by the time we had paid off the cruiser, which, with the other ships specially commissioned for the purpose, was relegated to the reserve basin until she should be wanted to relieve some other vessel abroad, more than another month had elapsed before our rejoining the guardship.
But no sooner had we done this than we had to make another move.
The Training Squadron was under refit for its winter cruise, and a number of boys being required to fill up the complements of the ships composing it, one fine morning, just when Mick and myself began to feel at home again on board the old Asia, we were paraded on deck with a number of others and ‘told off’ to join the Active.