"I'm glad I'm like," she said, "though he wanted us all to be like Mums. But I'll never be anything like him in splendidness, worse luck; now the war is over, there isn't even a chance of serving your country." Cousin Greta shivered. "My dear child, don't talk as though you were sorry this ghastly war is over!" which was one of the speeches that set Joey's teeth on edge, and were impossible to answer. She said no more, and Cousin Greta took a tremendous box of chocolates from the chest of drawers and told Joey she was to take them back with her to school. Then she mentioned that she always rested for an hour after luncheon, and did Joey think she could find her way back to the schoolroom, where she would find Gracie? Joey thanked Cousin Greta, and was sure she could, and in due course, and after taking two or three wrong turnings, she found herself back at the schoolroom door. She heard no sound of voices; it did not sound as though anybody were inside, and sure enough when she opened the door she found nobody in the room but John. He grinned at her in a friendly fashion. "Where's Gracie?" he asked. "I don't know," Joey said. She took some credit to herself for not adding, "I don't care." John laughed. "Well, come and talk to me till she comes along." Joey established herself on a chair by his sofa. "What do you do when you're a snotty?" she asked. "We know more about the Army, you see." "Keep a look out when the deck's all ice, mostly," John said. "Of course, sometimes there was a scrap--not half often enough, though--and when you get your signal you've to be jolly quick or the other chap snaffles it all!" "How do you signal?" Joey asked. "Wireless mostly. Of course you have to know all kinds of signals. Can you read Morse?" "No, I can't." "I'll teach you--it's as easy as winking." And John kept his word. Joey was fairly safe on the Morse alphabet in half an hour, and felt immensely pleased with herself. She was only too delighted that Gracie stayed away so long; she was beginning to enjoy herself for the first time that day. John directed her to a table-drawer, where there was an electric torch and a whistle; he took the torch and she the whistle; and she went over to the window to make her first attempt at "sending" in Morse. She boggled rather over it, and had to be prompted in two or three letters; but John was encouraging, and assured her she was picking it up very quickly. Then he proceeded to reply, very slowly, with long and short flashes from the electric torch. Directly he began Joey knew of what it reminded her--the curious blue flashes she had seen from the leads on that first night she was at school. She meant to ask John about them after he had finished his Morse sentence--just now that needed all her concentration. "Long, short, long, short," she spelt out. "C--is that right, John? Short--long--don't tell me! I know. A--long--short--oh, that's the opposite!--don't tell me--N."