Verily, the "price of Admiralty" is a huge one, but men will ever be found ready to comply with its demands.
CHAPTER XXVII.
"MEPHISTO" AND THE SUBMARINE.
"Good business! Now there's a chance of seeing life!" exclaimed Lieutenant Aubyn.
"I should have thought you have been seeing plenty of life already, Terence," remarked his mother, with a faint tinge of reproachfulness, "and death also," she added.
"Ay, and death," agreed Terence. "Unfortunately, yes; but it's part of the work. It was the future to which I was referring. Fancy, mother, a real cruiser at last—not an armed merchantman, nor a destroyer, although I'll admit I had a real good time in the 'Terrier'—but a modern cruiser."
Terence's appointment had arrived in the form of an Admiralty telegram, ordering him to join H.M.S. "Sunderland" as soon as possible.
H.M.S. "Sunderland" was a light cruiser of the "Town" Class, a vessel of a little over 5000 tons displacement, and armed with eight 6-in. guns, four 3-pounders, and two submerged 21-in. torpedo tubes. Her speed was nominally 25 knots, but this rate had been considerably exceeded when conditions called for her to do her level best.
Accordingly, within four hours of receiving his appointment, Terence bade his parent farewell and proceeded by rail to Devonport, where the "Sunderland" was lying. It was nearly dark when he alighted at Millbay station. Here he called a taxi and was whirled off to the Dockyard, whence a picquet boat conveyed him to the cruiser, which was lying at a buoy in the Hamoaze.