Once more we return to the embarkation¹ jetty at Portsmouth.

 

There, as of old, we find a huge, white-painted troop-ship warping² slowly in, her bulwarks³ and ports crowded with white helmets, and eager faces gazing at the equally eager but anxious faces on shore.

 

Miss Robinson’s coffee-shed shows signs of life! Our friend Brown is stimulating⁴ the boiler⁵. The great solitary⁶ port-hole has been opened, and the never-failing lady-workers are there, preparing their ammunition⁷ and getting ready for action, for every troop-ship that comes to Portsmouth from foreign shores, laden⁸ with the bronzed warriors⁹ of Britain, has to face the certainty of going into action with that unconquerable little coffee-shed!

 

We do not, however, mean to draw the reader again through the old scene, further than to point out that, among the many faces that loom¹⁰ over these bulwarks, five are familiar, namely, those of our friends Miles Milton, William Armstrong, Moses Pyne, Stevenson, and Simkin. Jack¹¹ Molloy is not with them, because he has preferred to remain in Egypt, believing himself to be capable of still further service to Queen and country.

 

A feeling of great disappointment oppresses Miles and his friend Armstrong, for they fail to recognise in the eager crowd those whom they had expected to see.

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