The kitten episode was quite forgotten, as the men thronged to the rail.
"Ah," exclaimed a brawny Irishman, waving his bare arm in the direction of the stranger, "w'ot a pity it ain't war-toimes now! Sure it's a lovely bit av a foight we'd be lookin' for, wid that smoker!"
"War nothin'!" retorted the old gunner. "I'm willin' to keep me arms and legs on fur a while longer. What's the use o' bein' shot to pieces, anyway!"
"Why don't he h'ist his ens'n?" growled another of the crew. "Manners is manners, I say."
"It is h'isted," said Scupp, "only ye can't see it, 'cos it blows straight out forrard on this west wind he's comin' afore. The officers up there'll soon be makin' it out, I reckon."
But the uniformed group on the bridge had no such easy task. They scrutinised the flag again and again, without success.
"I can't make the thing out," said Dobson, lowering the glasses, "can you, Mr. Liddon?"
"Can't say I can. It blew out once, and looked like nothing I ever saw before—a sort of twenty-legged spider in the centre. It's like nothing I ever saw in these waters. If we were on the Asiatic coast——"
"Who has the sharpest eyes among the men, quartermaster?" enquired the commander.
"I rather think, sir, them Japs can see the farthest."