The cocoa I quaffed mug for mug with Melton, down to the last of the sweet, sustaining "settlings" in the bottom of the pot; but the candy I kept in reserve to draw on from time to time as it was needed to lubricate his tongue and stoke the smouldering fires of his memory. I started him off with a red-and-white "barber's pole" stick, which took not a little fumbling with mittened hands to extract from its greased tissue paper wrapper, and the seductive fragrance of crunched peppermint mingled with the acrid fumes of burning petroleum as he leaned close and began to tell how the ----th Flotilla, to which the _Firebrand_ belonged, screening the ----th B.S. of the Battle Fleet, came upon the scene toward the end of the long summer afternoon. He had witnessed Beatty's consummate manoeuvre of "crossing the T" of the enemy line with the four that remained of his battered First Battle Cruiser Squadron, and he had seen the main Battle Fleet baulked of its action the lowering mists and the closing in of darkness; but it was not until full night had clapped down its lid that the fun for the _Firebrand_ really began. "It was just 'twixt daylight an' dark," he said, reaching me a steadying hand in the darkness as the _Flyer_ teetered giddily down the back of a receding sea, "that the flotilla dropped back to take stashun 'stern the battl'ships we was screenin'. The _Killarney_ was leadin' an' after her came the _Firebran'_, _Seagull_, _Wreath_, an' _Consort_, makin' up the First Divishun. _Wreath_ an' _Consort_ sighted some Hun U-boats and 'stroyers while this move was on, an' plunk'd off a few shots at 'em. Don't think wi' any fatal consequence. Then there come the rattle of light gun fire from the south'ard, like from cru'sers or battleships repellin' T.B.D.'s. Then it was all serene for mor'n an 'our, an' then all hell opens up." I suspected, from the sounds he made, that Melton had bitten into a block of milk chocolate without removing its wrapping of foil and paper, but presently his enunciation grew less explosive and more intelligible. "It was Hun cru'sers drivin' down on us from the starboard quarter that started the monkey-show," he said, "an' that bein' the nor'west it was hardly where we'd reason to expect 'em from. It looks like we had 'em clean cut off, wi' the 'hole Battl' Fleet steamin' 'tween 'em an' their way back home, an' that they was tryin' to sneak through in the darkness. The _Wreath_, at the end o' the line nearest 'em, spotted 'em first, and she, 'cause she didn't want to give herself 'way wi' flashin', reported what she'd seen by low-power W.T. to the rest o' the flotilla. Course I--standin' watch aft--didn't know nothin' 'bout that signal, so that the first I hears o' the Huns was when they all opened up on the poor ol' _Killarney_, 'cause she was the leader. I s'pose, and she started firin' back at their flashes.