Fact!" I assured him. "Did he see you?" jerking his head towards the naval station.

I nodded, for, by the rules of the wager, the naval man had to see the trick. "He'll be over shortly," I added.

Five minutes later he burst in on the mess.

"Who was it?" he gasped. I bowed.

By

The same morning he went off in the tender to Steamer Point, having collected the four hundred we had won, plus my cheque for two hundred, and bought the boat. mid-day he was back again, his face wreathed in smiles, though I admit that I was not at all thrilled by his information that I was now half owner of the good ship Chota-peg, at present lying in the fish wharf.

I was considerably less thrilled when I gathered that he expected me to go and work in the thing.

Nearly every day the carpenters used to come over and consult at considerable length with Herrington. Then in the afternoon, when there was nothing doing on the aerodrome, they used to get a few hours' leave, and, laden with odds and ends of wood and bags of tools, proceed to the fish wharf to work on the Chota-peg. And gradually the fever passed to our mess. First one and then another of us found our way to that beastly smelling wharf and looked over the new acquisition.

"It's not half bad!" proclaimed the Flight Commander one lunch - time, apropos of nothing at all.

"What isn't?" I asked.
"Old Herrington's yacht."
"Have you seen it, then?

"Just come from there now. The Flight Sergeant is trying to persuade himself that he could fit an old aero engine into it and make it into a motor yacht!"

"What is the thing?" I

asked, for the first time experiencing a mild curiosity.

"Well, he calls it a-a cutter, I think, is the word he used. To me it looks like a bloomin' rowing-boat."

"How big is it? "

rate, it looks uncommonly like a very ancient ship's lifeboat."

"So it is," agreed the owner of the other half, quite cheerfully. "But when we've finished with it, it'll look likelike the Britannia; won't it,

From the top of the mast the

It was about four o'clock that afternoon when, guided by the sounds of English voices and the unmistakable bangings of chisels and hammers, I steered myself through the maze of dhows and Arabs, and came out upon a scene of hectic activity. Herrington, up to his eyes in paint and grease, was daubing away in the front of the thing, while the riggersergeant and five or six men were busily engaged in putting up a mast. On the side of the wharf the Flight Sergeant was standing staring into vacancy. "Which is my half? I asked facetiously.

"Isn't she a stunner?" cried Herrington, looking up from his daubings and entirely ignoring my remark. "She'll be ready for sea this week."

"But-but I thought I was a yacht-owner," I complained. "Well, what d'yer call this?" "I'd hate to give it a name," I said, "but to me, at any

agree.

"What I say, sir," interrupted the Flight Sergeant from my back, "and what I've said all along, is that it wants an injin!'

"Engine be blowed," growled Herrington. "I tell you this is a sailing-boat."

"But sailing went out o' fashion centuries ago, sir. Now I reckon that if we fitted one o' them old Canton-Unis injins in the bottom, and knocked a bit of a propeller together and stuck it at the back, it 'ud drive her along at something like thirty mile an hour!"

"And incidentally knock the bottom out!" put in Herrington.

There's no vibration in them Canton-Unis, sir," started the sergeant, who loved that appalling engine as he loved his life.

"Sergeant!" I exclaimed in

horror.

"Well, not much-anyway," he hedged. "This sailing is a disgrace to the Flying Corpse. It ought to have an injin."

"Can't I have an engine in my half, Herrington?" I asked. "Then you can sail the front bit and I'll motor in the back half."

Herrington scowled. "If you

got busy with a paint-brush instead of talking like a fool, we should get to sea all the quicker," he remarked.

"But I don't want to get to sea" I began dismally.

Then clear out of it!" he bawled.

And, very joyfully, I went. A week later found us all lunching at the Aden Club. We were gathered together to perform the christening ceremony, and while we imbibed a few preliminary liveners, Herrington, with a picked crew from the aerodrome, was engaged in bringing the yacht from the fish wharf to the club steps. He was scheduled to appear at one-fifteen, but when two o'clock came, and still there was no yacht, we began to think she had foundered on her maiden voyage. Two-thirty, however, was heralded by a clamour from beyond the sea wall, and, hastening across the verandah, our eyes were greeted by the undignified picture of our famous yacht being rowed to its anchorage. Four mechanics were doing their best, and that apparently was nowhere near good enough.

we

For several seconds watched the oars beating wildly in the air, and sometimes in the sea. Then the Flight Commander spoke—

"If they all pulled the same way, they'd get here quicker! It's worse than Margate!"

"No wind," exclaimed Herrington, when at last they tied up to the steps.

The mechanics were rubbing their hands ruefully.

"Give 'em some beer!" he added. "It's been tough work."

The mechanics had their beer, we had our lunch, and afterwards, amid dismal wails from the Flight Commander, we broke a bottle of whisky against her bows.

"The Chota-peg ! " cried Herrington, "and good luck to her! "

"Amen," said I, "for she carries half my bank balance ! " It was too calm for what Herrington dubbed "a first trial under sail," so while he whistled for a wind we went off and played a game of snooker. His whistling, however, proved fruitless, so we did not go out in her that day.

The next day, Friday, we were at war, so that none of us could spare the time to go to Steamer Point. We used to have a war every Friday at Aden just to keep things going, as it were. That Aden front was the best theatre of war I know. In the morning, before dawn, we used to go out and do a spot of bombing. Sometimes, too, the old 10-inch gun would decide to drop a shell or two over towards the Turkish lines. It was great fun observing for this particular fellow, because the rifling was SO worn that the gunners swore they could shove a shell into either end of the barrel with equal ease. It usually happened that, having narrowed them down to a "Y" correction,

the very next shell would fall five or six hundred yards away! Then there were the picquets, and if nothing else was doing we could always sweep down over these and do a little with the machine-gun. There was There was more sport attached to this, for it was seldom indeed that, having wilfully and maliciously interfered with a picquet, one got off scot-free. I remember I came home one day with no less than ninety-two holes in my wings.

On Fridays, however, we used to have a regular set-to. The infantry would advance across the sand, and, knowing what was coming, the Turks and Arabs would desert their trenches and go for a day's holiday into the villages. Our troops would advance and destroy those trenches, and, that done, turn round and come home. Meanwhile the Turks and Arabs having come back, they in their turn amused themselves by harassing the returning troops. It was here that the aeroplanes came in, for by frequent swoops and bursts of machine-gun fire we forced the enemy to keep out of rifle-range of our fellows. The cream of the whole situation was that, having done one's "bit" in the morning and afternoon, one could drive off into Steamer Point in the evening, and there, in the coloured glow of the electrics at the club, dine and dance with the beauteous ladies of the station.

A few days after this particular strafe we were just

"We're the R.N.A.S. from Zanzibar! We've come out to grub with you." And he was joined in the doorway by three other hungry - looking specimens.

In my capacity as Mess President, I rose to my feet.

"I dunno about grubbing with us," I said; "we're on rations here-but at any rate we can give you something to drink. Come in. How many are there?"

"I believe there are a few more coming on behind," and even as he spoke came the rattle of another car, and five more gentlemen decanted themselves into the mess. They had, they said, just arrived in harbour, and hearing that there was a Flying Corps somewhere, had come out in search of it.

By dint of a little scrounging in the kitchen we managed to supply them with something to eat, and before they left they invited us to lunch on the seaplane carrier. "And if you'll tell us what time to expect you, we'll have the picquet boat waiting to bring you off."

66

We have our own yacht," said Herrington largely. "Eh?"

"I say that we'll come off in our own yacht!"

Swabs!" muttered poor Herrington, getting out and untying the rope which held us to the steps.

"Here, go easy!" I cried as he jumped back into the boat with a heavy crash. “You jump on your own half."

And now something was wrong with the wrong with the wind, for, although both sails were up, we could not draw out from the steps. Bumping and scraping, we drifted along to the club wall, and there were subjected to a fire of ridicule from several officers of the Malay States Guides, sunning themselves on the verandah.

"Try it with a bun!" cried

"Not a scrap," I said firmly. "You are the only one who has pulled four in the Ramsgate lifeboat."

"Soon beyond the harbour bar. Shall my barque be sailing far? sang the Flight Commander from his position in the bottom of the boat. He broke off, "I'm feeling seasick."

Very slowly the boat began to respond to the Herculean efforts of the lifeboatman, and when we had widened the gap between ourselves and the wall to some fifty feet or so, a sudden puff of wind filled the sails.