"Don't want you to keep the bullets off now, Glover," he said, and took
me into the Keppel's Head and gave me lunch.
I went to sea for the next four months in my new ship, the _Royal Oak_,
in the Channel Fleet, and when the July promotions came out it was
simply fizzing.
Captain Helston and the Commander had both been promoted to
post-captains, and Mr. Parker of "No. 3" and Mr. Lang of "No. 2" to
commanders. Collins, the sub of "No. 3", and Harrington of "No. 1", who
had tried to save the stokers when the shell burst her boiler, were made
lieutenants, and best of all, down at the bottom of the list was "Noted
for Early Promotion", and then followed my name, and Toddles's and
Mellins's, two more of the _Laird's_ midshipmen, and three of the
_Strong Arm's_. Dumpling's name wasn't there. Ogston, the Assistant
Engineer of the _Laird_, had been promoted a few days before. We were
all so glad.
You can imagine how excited I was, and I had to stand a sardine supper
that night down in the _Royal Oak's_ gun-room.
I knew, too, how frightfully delighted they would be at home, and the
very next mail brought a fiver from my Pater.
Pat Jones happened to have been sent to my ship as one of the
quarter-masters, and he was just as delighted as I was, and I tried to
make him share the fiver with me, but he wouldn't.
However, I know that the Pater is going to look after him and give him a
good billet whenever he leaves the service, so that will be all right.
Well, Milly was married in August, up in London, and as the _Royal Oak_
happened to be in Portland I managed to get leave, and went up to see
the wedding. It was a jolly grand affair, and there were any number of
old friends there.
I met Captain Cummins the day before, looking in at a jeweller's shop in
Regent Street, with his hands in his pockets and a toothpick in his
mouth. He had such a melancholy, comic-looking expression, and he
chuckled, just as he always did when he caught sight of me, and took me
into the shop to help him to choose something for Milly.
It was a thing she could stick in her hair if she wanted to, or she
could divide it in three and fasten it round her neck by a chain, with
the big piece under her chin if she wanted to wear it like that. I know
he must have given a tremendous amount for it.
He gave me lunch at a swagger club, but didn't talk much. He had just
been given command of a ship on the Cape of Good Hope station, and was
going to commission her in a week's time.
"Busy laying in a stock of toothpicks, youngster," he chuckled.