R.F.
       * * * * *

    “Wanted.—­Good stage electrician.  No good stage electrician.”—­The
    Stage.

There ought to be no difficulty in finding the latter.

* * * * *

CROSS COUNTRY.

A Commander in the Senior Service is the man who gets things done; and long experience has formulated for him a golden rule:  “If you want to get things done you must see them done.”  This laudable maxim applies in a lesser degree to all his subordinates, right down to the newly-joined boy, who can’t very well help seeing some things done, unless he makes a habit of working with his eyes shut—­a practice which does not appeal particularly to P.O.’s.

The Commander of His Majesty’s Battleship Ermyntrude is far from being an exception to the rule; he is a martyr to it.  So are his officers.  In their enthusiasm they have let the rule run riot.  You will soon see that for yourself.

The idea germinated in the practical head of the gunner.  It pushed its way into the upper air under the plain cap of the A.P.  It budded under the (slighted tilted) head-dress of Number One, and blossomed forth into a full-blown project under the gilded oak-leaves that thatch the Bloke.

He said, “The ship’s company will run across country.”

The ship’s company girded up its loins and awaited further orders.

The course was decided upon.  It ran from the signalling station on the south of the island straight to the town on the north.  There was no possibility of making a mistake, because you could see the semaphore from anywhere, and you would know when you got to the town because the road stopped there.  The various divisions of the ship were to compete against each other.  If you came in first you were to be given a ticket numbered “one”; if second, a ticket numbered “two,” and so on; and the division which had the smallest total of pips at the end would be the winner.

At 8.15 the ship’s pinnace landed the gunner on the town jetty at the north end of the island.  He had come to deal with the competitors when they arrived at the winning-post.  He had brought with him the bo’sun and the carpenter, his own mate, the bo’sun’s mate and the carpenter’s mate, four P.O.’s, the sergeant of Marines, a few leading stokers and half-a-dozen hands; fifty fathoms of hawser-laid four-inch white rope; six stout stakes (ash); bags, canvas, twelve (one to collect the tickets earned by each division); and one thousand eight hundred tickets, numbered from one to one thousand eight hundred. (There were only six hundred and fifty runners, but it is well to be on the safe side.)