"The poor children," she whispered. Outside there came a sudden renewal of firing and the spiteful stammer of a maxim. It died away, and there was silence, broken by the buzzing of flies in the doorway and the sound of some one fighting for his breath. In the heavy air the sickly smell of iodoform mingled with the odours of departed joss-sticks and sun-baked earth. Suddenly, from a bed in the shadows, a weak voice spoke— "Jubbs!" said Jerry. A moment’s pause, while the motionless figure in the next bed gathered energy for a last effort of speech. Then— "Coming!" said Jubbs. *X.* *THE CHOSEN FOUR.* The Admiral, it was rumoured, had said, "Let there be Signal Midshipmen." Wherefore the Flag-Lieutenant communed with the Commander, who sent for the Senior Midshipman. The Senior Midshipman responded to the summons with an alacrity that hinted at a conscience not wholly void of offence. "Let there be Signal Midshipmen," said the Commander, or words to that effect, "in four watches." "Aye, aye, sir," said the Senior Midshipman. He emerged from the Commander’s cabin and breathed deeply, as one who had passed unscathed through a grave crisis. Apparently that small matter of the picket-boat’s damaged stem-piece had been overlooked. Ere he was out of earshot, however, the Commander spoke again. "By the way," added the Arbiter of his little destinies, "I don’t want to see your name in the leave-book again until the picket-boat is repaired." "Aye, aye, sir," repeated the Senior Midshipman. He descended to the Gunroom, where, it being "make-and-mend" afternoon, his brethren were wrapped in guileless slumber. An ’Inman’s Nautical Tables,’ lying handy on the table, described a parabola through the air, and, striking a prominent portion of the nearest sleeper’s anatomy, ricochetted into his neighbour’s face. The two sat up, glowered suspiciously at each other for an instant, and joined battle. The shock of their conflict overturned a form, and two more recumbent figures awoke wrathfully to "life and power and thought." "You four," announced the Senior Midshipman calmly, when the uproar had subsided, "will take on signal duty from to-morrow morning." Then, having satisfactorily discharged the duty imposed upon him, he settled himself to slumber on the settee. Three of the four, to whom this announcement was made gasped and were silent. _Signals_! Under the very eye of the Admiral! Each one saw himself an embryo Flag-Lieutenant.... One even made a little prophetic motion with his left arm, as though irked by the aiguilette that in fancy already encircled it. The fourth alone spoke—- "Crikey!" he muttered, "an’ my only decent pair of breeches are in the scran-bag"[#]