clouds in the sky through which the moon was like
a dying lamp.
"I'm used to roughing it," the officer said. "I've slept often enough less comfortably at the front. It isn't that that worries me. I've been transferred to a regiment stationed at some distance from Dublin. If they tell me at Holyhead the trains aren't running on the other side I'll have to go back to London."
At Holyhead the confusion sent him back to London, because nobody seemed to know anything certainly.
The boat, however, lay against the dock with steam up. During the minute examination of our papers rain added to the shivering discomfort of those black hours before the dawn. Reluctantly we were permitted to embark. We tried to settle ourselves in the midst of a confusion which increased.
There was wild but serious talk of a fleet of new and gigantic German submarines which were sup- posed to be somewhere in the Irish Sea preparing to co-operate with the rebels.
"They're sure to give us a chase," a man whispered.
Many agreed. You couldn't help admiring these people who went forward in face of such a belief.
