When I went below, the Captain had just finished playing with
his precious old chart.
* * * * *
We received a message at 2 a.m. last night from Heligoland to return
forthwith; it is now 2 a.m. and we are approaching the redoubtable
Dover Barrage. We had no trouble coming up channel to-day, which seems
singularly empty, at any rate in mid-channel, where we were.
* * * * *
We got back about three hours ago, and as I was appointed temporary to
the boat, Von Weissman kindly allowed me to leave her and come up to
Bruges as soon as we got into the shelters at Zeebrugge.
I got up here just, in time for a late dinner. Hunger satisfied, I
retired to my room and, needless to say, at once rang up my darling
Zoe.
By the mercy of providence she was in, but imagine my sensations when I
heard that that accursed swine of a Colonel was also back from the
front, and expected in at the flat at any moment, being then, she
thought, engaged in his after dinner drinking bouts at the cavalry
officers' club. I could only groan.
A laugh at the other end stung me to furious rage, appeased in an
instant by her soothing tones as she told me that I should be glad to
hear that he was only up from the Somme on a four-days leave, and was
returning next morning by the 8 a.m. troop train. Glad! I could have
danced for joy. I breathed again.
As the Colonel was expected back at any moment she thought it advisable
to terminate the conversation, which was done with obvious reluctance
on her part, or so I flatter myself.
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