"He doesn't know it's there," remarked Derek.
"Then he jolly well will do so," rejoined the signalling officer, and, grasping a pair of hand-flags, he steadied himself on the pier-head rail.
"Guard-ship, what's that at your fore top-mast head?" he signalled.
The R.N.V.R. Lieutenant glanced aloft. For a moment he looked puzzled, then he realized that honours were no longer even. The R.A.F. were "one up".
A broad smile suffused his features. Snatching up a pair of hand-flags he semaphored:
"Thanks; but why didn't you fill it before you returned it?"
CHAPTER XXV
Salvage Work
For the best part of the next five weeks adverse climatic conditions prevented the salvage of the stranded sea-plane. Unless given remarkably fine and calm weather, the sand-dunes of Thorbury, fringed by extensive shoals carrying less than a fathom of water, were inaccessible.