“I can’t think of any one who would learn it quicker than you, and you’ve got a big head start in your knowledge of the country and the people you would have to deal with,” said Evans.
Again Heringham thought awhile in silence. “I dare say I could get there if I had to,” he said musingly, “but then, I don’t see much prospect of their asking me to.”
“Oh, well,” said Evans, “you never know what may turn up next.”
“What’s up?” said Heringham. “Have you got strings on the dear old things in the War Office that you’re going to pull?”
“Not that I know of,” said Evans. “But I’ll tell you a little of our situation. Mortimer, our Secretary of the Navy, happens to be an old pal of mine; classmates we were, in school and college. He’s a trump, dead in earnest and a splendid organizer. But his life-work has been law and politics, and when this job fell on his shoulders he knew no more of naval affairs than I know of Sanskrit. In spite of this handicap he’s making good, but he needs a good deal of technical help, and I’m trying to contribute what I can in the field of communications.”
He went on to explain the nature of his present mission to England, both as to consultation in the matter of radio apparatus in general, and in particular as to effecting coöperation with the British Intelligence Service for the transmission of information by radio to the Allied Navies.
“Barton, of our Intelligence Bureau, is over here,” he said, “and he will have access to the men who control things in your Intelligence Service. He is the only one in our mission who knows that I’m not concerned simply with radio apparatus. I can talk to him, and he’ll listen.”
“Well, old chap,” said Heringham, “I’m at your disposal or his, to stick my head in the lion’s mouth if it will do any good. Lord knows I’ve been hating myself to death here, doing an old woman’s odd jobs when I should be fighting. By Jove, there’s eight o’clock striking; come over to Hall and we’ll have some dinner.”
The slow tolling of the College bell came ringing across the court. Heringham slipped on his academic gown and led the way out into the Great Court where they joined the converging streams of dons crossing to the famous Hall where hang the portraits of more great men, past members of Trinity College, than can be found in any similar place the world over. At dinner Evans sat between Heringham and an elderly professor of Greek, with a distinguished face and a white beard. With this scholar he soon became engaged in a conversation of absorbing interest, which furnished him useful scraps of information bearing on the present situation in the Mediterranean, based on the old man’s intimate knowledge of the Greece of an earlier day.
After dinner, the dons migrated in procession to the Combination Room where Evans sat next the Master of Trinity, an eminent mathematician, who plied him eagerly with questions about the American Navy, as they sipped their port and coffee. He, at least, was keenly aware that on this group of ships, and the controlling mind behind it, rested the future of all.