"Full speed ahead and jumps," whispered a guy next to me. It sounded reasonable. I seized upon it eagerly. "I'd put full steam ahead and jump, sir," I replied. "Are you mad?" shouted the amazed officer. "No, sir," I hastened to assure him, "only profoundly perplexed. I think, sir, that I would go into a conference, under the circumstances." The officer seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown. "What's your name?" asked another officer suddenly. I told him. "Initials?" I told him. He looked at the paper for a moment. "That explains it," he said with a sigh of relief, "you're not the man. There has been some mistake. Orderly, take this man away and bring back the right one. Pronto!" That Spanish stuff sounds awfully sea-going. I was taken away, but the officer had not yet recovered. He regarded me with an expression of profound disgust. Anyway I created a sensation. "'I would still remain in a dense fog,' I gasped in a low voice" Sept. 4th. Things have been happening with overwhelming rapidity. On the strength of being properly engaged to Polly, my permanent sweetie, I went to my Regimental commander this morning and applied for a furlough. He regarded me pityingly for a moment and then carefully scanned a list of names on the desk before him. "I am sorry," he said finally, "but not only am I not able to grant your request, but I have the unpleasant duty to inform you that you are a little less than forty-eight hours from the vicinity of Ambrose light." "Shipped!" I gasped as the world swam around me. "Your name is on this list," said the officer not unkindly. "Shipped!" I repeated in a dazed voice. "It does seem ridiculous, I'll admit," said the officer, smiling, "but you never can tell what strange things are going to happen in the Navy. If