"What is it? Any news?"
"They're sending every one of those Greek labourers[#] away to-night. They've given them two hours to pack up, and you and I have to embark them. What does that mean, I wonder?"
[#] Some two hundred Greek labourers had been employed ever since the landing, and had, for the most part, worked well; constantly under fire.
"Perhaps they've caught them spying; making signals or getting information across to the Turks,' the Orphan suggested.
"I don't know; it's jolly rummy."
"There's a lot of ammunition to be landed to-night, some time after ten o'clock," the Sub said, joining them. "You'll have to go out in the lighter, Orphan, so you'll have a busy time."
Well, just before ten o'clock, when the Orphan had started to warp the empty lighter away from No. 4 Pier, a messenger came down from the N.T.O. to tell him that this ammunition was not to be landed, and he heard afterwards that it went back to Mudros immediately.
This roused their curiosity; and when, next night, three lieutenants and many more bluejackets arrived, and half a dozen of those motor-lighters (the "water-beetles") and many more picket-boats came across from Kephalo, everyone guessed that the final evacuation had been determined upon.
And, on the last day of the year, Captain Macfarlane came to take charge of the elaborate organization required to embark all the troops, guns, horses, and stores without the knowledge of the Turks. He became Senior Naval Transport Officer, and lived in his big "dug-out" along a path cut in the cliff beyond the Naval Mess, and known as "Park Lane" because all the senior officers had their "dug-outs" there.
The Sub, Bubbles, and the Orphan were immensely pleased that he had come—he had such a kind, good-humoured way of giving orders, and nothing ever flustered him.