about.

Two evenings later our wireless operator reported confused wireless signals coming along which failed to answer to any of his codes and oiphers. Our wireless was not directional; but we made it directional by the simple process of steering various courses until we discerned the signals coming with increased strength. Only an enemy submarine, we decided, could produce those incoherent signals, and we maintained a most careful look-out for long after the signals had ceased to trouble our receiving telephones.

We found proof during the ensuing day that our suspicions had been more or less correct. At first, when the object was reported, we named it for a floating oil-drum; but as we drew nearer we realised our mistake. It was an ugly German mine bobbing nastily in the 'scend of the seas-quite obviously an enemy mine-laying oraft had been active laying a sinister barrier across the track of the expected Bizerta convoy. No question about it: the German secret service picked up a lot of information one way and another. But of the submarine author of the minelaying there was nothing whatever to be seen. Our duty was obvious: we proceeded to risk our camouflage and sank the offending mine by riflefire; after which we waited for darkness to close down again, and transmitted a wireless signal to all concerned that mines were as likely as not

Then, after beating about the vicinity for a little while further, more or less haphazard, just in case Fritz returned, tigerwise, to his expected kill, we shaped course by way of Pantellaria for the Base, at which we were already overdue.

The whole oruise had been fruitless: we were dejected men. "Q" boating, we deoided, was a very much overrated form of amusement. Fritz, was our fervent declaration, had all his teeth in their sockets, and was too old a bird to be caught with such chaff as we were spreading for his gratification.

So far as the C.O. was conoerned, he was desperately determined to attempt another brand of seafaring. After his many months in Brig X he yearned for the lost comforts of big ships. He told me that the nerve-strain was telling, and I believed him. For there was an undoubted tension on the nerves during all the time we were at sea. Actual action was less affrighting than the endless suspense and the cocasional feeling of sheer helplessness when the elements were massed together in conspiracy against us. We could fight, yes; but we could neither compel action nor avoid it,

we had to take whatever was coming. And we knew that Brig X must sooner or later be outclassed. All the stories and reports we heard went to prove that enemy submarines operating in the Mediterranean were adopting a much heavier armament than anything we carried.

Consequently, on reaching the Base and making his report, the C.O. asked to be relieved from his command. This request was granted, and I was appointed to provisional command of the brig. Allan had done good work, he had been in close action far oftener than most naval officers had been during the entire course of the war, and the D.S.C. that he had earned had been well earned. Indeed, certain judges, who knew what they were talking about, declared that a Victoria Cross would have been none too small a reward for his excellent work in outwitting the wily Hun.

We found much stir and bustle at the Base. A project was afoot to administer a knock-out blow to the Turks, who, now that Bulgaria had definitely thrown in her hand, were wavering, and apparently wondering what benefit was to accrue to them from their participation in the World War. There was talk of a dramatic landing at Dedeagatoh, a forlorn-hope sort of affair, and Allan, our late C.O., was promptly roped in for this adventure, so that his hopes of ease were doomed to disappointment.

Came next the news that Brig X's career of usefulness was finished. She was underarmed, and altogether unfitted to cope with the powerful submarines that were known to be operating in the waters of the Mediterranean; she was not suitable for the fitting of a heavier armament; and-there was a general feeling everywhere that the war was drawing near to its close. Our little ship, aboard which we had encountered such vicissitudes, was to be paid off, reconditioned, and returned to her original owners. The major part of her crew was to join Allan in the Dedeagatch enterprise, since well-tried were necessary for the project; and it was deemed at Headquarters that men who had voluntarily taken upon themselves the onerous work of "Q" boating, would not be lacking when it came to desperate work ashore.

men

naval traditions-was curtailed to an extent that rendered it unnoticeable.

One final question arises to the mind after living over these not so distant days: were the "Q" boats worth while?

I think they were. The main fault about them all was that they came into being too late, almost at the same time as 8 defensive armament was granted to merchant ships. The inevitable result of this concession to a gallant and hitherto undefended service was to drive enemy U-boats under water; instead of attacking by gun-fire on the surface, they resorted to the more deadly and less answerable method of torpedo attack. But H.M.S. Privet, one of the most lowly of "Q's," after a long career of usefulness, during which she was in action many times and successful more than once, sank an enemy submarine two days before the Armistice was declared,-which went to show that it was occasionally possible to lure Fritz to his well-deserved doom,

In the North Sea and Atlantio "Q"boats justified their existence remarkably well, when once the slow-thinking powers realised the varying qualities of seafaring. There was a disposition at one time to send ships into waters where similar ships never worked. To find an obvious coaster zigzagging away in mid-Atlantic was sufficient to arouse the suspicions of even the most lethargic and obtuse of submarine commanders. That "Q's" were often in

hot action, and that they were fought well, let the long list of naval V.C.'s tell.

So far as the Mediterranean "Q"brigs were concerned, they certainly justified their coming into being, although they would have been infinitely more effective had they embarked earlier on their camouflaged career. But one, and perhaps the main, result of their activities was, that the Italian sailing coasting trade, previously completely paralysed by the ruthless depredations of enemy under-water craft, was enabled to resume; and what that meant to Italy-a country but ill-supplied with railways -history will probably tell at a future date, when all things are weighed fairly in the balance and honour is given where honour is due.

So wary of Italian coasting oraft did German submarines become, that the masters of such vessels lost any hesitancy they might have had, and proceeded to sea with the utmost regularity. Every sailing-brig was a potential submarinekiller in enemy eyes; and so fleet after fleet won through the danger-zone, and kept Italy supplied with the material and stores required to snatch viotory out of the jaws of impending defeat.

True, the tale of destruction was not a long one: Brig X was actually the only brig that could claim a definite viotory; but the worth of a thing is estimated more by its general effect on the war as a whole than on its individual distinotions.

SOMEHOW Jinja suggests a joke. At least when you speak to any one unfamiliar with the place, he or she usually laughs and says "Jinja-how do you spell it?" Yet Jinja is far from being a joke on a still hot night when there is a steep hill to climb and the mosquitoes are busy. Then, indeed, one is apt to wish that the bungalows were not so far above the little pier which thrusts out into the still waters of the great Viotoria Nyanza.

Very different, however, is the feeling when you step forth from the door of one of these same bungalows into the fresh morning air and gaze abroad and around you. The lower part of the hill trends so steeply to the lake that the landingplace is tucked away beneath it and so invisible, but in any case the stranger has no eye for such a prosaio sight as a wooden wharf and a trim sorew steamer. Nay, rather the eye seeks the glittering waters of Napoleon Gulf with the high forest-olad island in the foreground and roams along the varied coast-line from east to west, the while the mind is busy with vistas of the past.

Yonder is Uganda, from Uganda, from which the murdering hordes of the savage Mtesa were wont to swoop upon Usoga. Jinja has witnessed many battles and much cruelty and bloodshed in

the past. One of its sights is the ancient tree sheltering the stones where on the victims of the cruel despot of Uganda yielded up their lives to the knife or spear. Now, white children play around it and doves harbour in its branches. Indeed, the whole of the residential part of Jinja is very peaceful. It is a garden town. Each bungalow has its compound, hedge-surrounded, full of flowers and shrubs. The roads are wide and in parts lined by a very beautiful solanaceous tree, with white and purple blossoms like those of the potato, but infinitely more magnificent. The open ground is carpeted by coarse. grass, for the whole brae-face has been cleared and is now a verdant slope, steep but pleasant to the eye. The place is peaceful, lulled as it were to sleep by a distant lullaby of rushing waters; for even by day the ear catches a faint murmuring from the west, while at night, to the houses on the verge of the links, there rises on the air a continuous swishing sound, the song of the Ripon Falls, softened by distance but attractive to the ear as the first noise of rain in a dry and thirsty land.

Let us step forth upon these links, links where golf is played industriously upon a short grass; open downs studded here and there by single trees,