“It will not. And if you want a light in the night, your little electric torch won’t matter, if you pull the curtain across the port. We’ve been asking the purser about it, and he says it will be all right; only they have to make the regulations very strict, because so many people are fools about it, and disobey rules altogether if they get half a chance. A man always has to be on duty, keeping a watch over the side to make sure that no window is showing an unlawful beam.”
“Funny, what idiots people can be!” Wally commented. “You wouldn’t think any one would want to be caught by the Germans.”
“Oh, there are always people who think they know more than the authorities,” Jim said, “and who like to show how brave they are. As the purser says, the owners wouldn’t a bit mind their being exceedingly courageous with themselves, but they object to their taking chances with a ship worth a million and a half. Anyhow, there will be trouble for transgressors on this voyage. Come up on deck.”
There was a fresh breeze blowing as they reached the head of the companion; and Wally dived back again for Norah’s coat. The Perseus was nearing the twin Heads, Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean, that form the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. On the right lay the little town of Queenscliff; on the left, barren heights, sparsely covered with scrub, where, through the glasses, they could see soldiers moving about, keeping a close watch. A detachment of the Light Horse could be descried on a rocky point.
“A ship tried to slip out without her proper clearance papers the other day,” Wally said.
“Did she get out?”
“Not much. The fort at Queenscliff fired a blank shot first, by way of friendly warning; then, as she didn’t take any notice, they put a shell just across her bows. Then she paused to ruminate, and came back. She really wasn’t up to any mischief—it was only a disinclination on the part of her captain to regard war restrictions. I hear they made him pay the cost of his own bombardment.”
“Serve him right,” said Norah, laughing. “Wally, is that the Rip?”
Outside the Heads could be seen a flurry of broken water—great green waves that came charging hither and thither, without any of the regularity of breakers dashing upon a shore. Now and then one broke in a wild “white horse” that was hastily engulfed in the mass of swirling green. Sometimes the mass would pile itself up and up in broken hills of water; then, as though sucked under by some mighty, unseen power, it subsided, tumbling into fragments and dashing away furiously. A little steamer was coming through it, rolling so terribly that momentarily it seemed that she could not recover herself, but must go under. As they watched, a great wave reared itself up and hit her squarely, burying her in a cloud of foam.
“Yes, that’s the Rip,” Wally answered. “My aunt, isn’t that boat having a lively time!”