‘It will be, I expect. You mustn’t mind his language, though. He’s rather a hard nut.’
‘Don’t think I shall. I’m used to that sort of thing after ten years close acquaintanceship with the Navy.’
Allison laughed.
‘And are you,’ I suggested, ‘really going to stop in submarines after an experience like that?’
‘Why not?’ he laughed again. ‘Because I’m unlucky once it doesn’t follow that I will be again.’
‘And the stoker?’
‘He’s coming back with me as a leading hand. That is if he behaves himself,’ and he glanced at the card in my hand.
‘But when it was all over and you were in the hospital, how did you feel?’
‘I felt a bit bad at first, and then I thought of the rest of them down there, and I felt as if I wanted a drink. The sister wouldn’t let me have one, though, and we had a proper blarney,’ and he broke off into some long story of the hospital.
I saw that it was no more use and that the golden hour was passed. It was no good pressing it, and I was thankful to have gleaned so much.