"Very pretty to watch, but give me dry land," Uncle Podger declared solemnly.
The little Padre, sucking a big pipe, his face twitching with excitement, muttered "bother"—a fearful swear-word for him—and spat out the end of his mouthpiece. He had bitten it off in his agitation.
The China Doll stood with his pink-and-white face gazing upwards, his mouth wide open, and his big eyes opening and shutting.
"My jumping Jimmy! Life! Life! We're seeing life, my jumping Doll," and the Sub lifted the Assistant Clerk off the deck and dropped him again.
"Do you want to go back to the North Sea patrol—my young Blot on the Landscape?"
"No, sir;" and the China Doll curtseyed disrespectfully, and bolted behind the stolid figure of Uncle Podger.
"By the King's Regulations and Gun-room instructions, disrespect to superior officers is punishable by death or such other punishment as is hereinafter—" began the Clerk, but was interrupted by a shout of "Look! She's coming down now!"
The hydroplane was coming back, the puff-balls had ceased, and with long spiral swoops she slid down on the water and spun along the surface to the Aennie Rickmers.
"Old Yellow Beard wants you, sir," a young A.B.—it was Plunky Bill—interrupted, saluting the Sub.
"What! Who?" roared the Sub, glaring at him.