As before, he found himself acting informally as liaison officer between the Bureau of Engineering and the office of the Director of Naval Communications. He found loose ends in the way of fitting the more highly specialized apparatus to the intricate uses for which it was required, and the problem thus raised brought him closely in touch with the radio men in Communication Headquarters.
There was one man attached to the office of the Director of Naval Communications who especially attracted his interest and attention. This was Lieutenant Wellman, a lean man with dark, mobile eyes and an almost uncanny look of penetration. He had recently been attached to this office, and had a reputation of great knowledge of telephone and telegraph systems and all manner of communication problems. Just as Evans spent much of his time at the D.N.C. office, so Wellman spent much of his at the Bureau of Engineering, where he was on friendly terms with the officers in the Radio Division from Commander Rich down. Evans found him alert and ready with an intellectual grasp of the problems before them, and eager for technical knowledge, especially of the newer radio methods. These Evans discussed with him at some length, but his own gift for inquiry was such that in their talk Evans did most of the questioning and Wellman most of the telling.
Evans also spent more than one evening in conference with Mortimer. With mutual profit they viewed the war in its larger perspective, and unearthed its salient features from amidst the jumble of apparently unrelated facts.
The situation, boiled down to its essentials, was much as it had been at the time of their earlier talks before Evans went to the fleet. The increased destruction of enemy submarines had facilitated the shipping of supplies to Northern Europe, but in this respect the situation was still critical. Every submarine that could be destroyed would help to turn the balance.
“The soldiers we are sending over help the morale of the Allies and aid them materially in holding the line,” said Evans, “but do you think they’ll ever push it back enough to win the war that way?”
Mortimer shook his head. “It doesn’t look like it.”
“I fear all the man power of Northern Europe and North America combined would be expended in pushing through to a decision on land,” said Evans, frowning.
“They depend on their sea power to such an extent that if we could strike hard at that, we could paralyze them,” said Mortimer. “Don’t you think so?”
“Yes,” said Evans, “and they know it and are guarding their fleet mighty carefully. Conversely, if they could smash our fleet, they’d finish us. And if they saw what looked like a good chance, they’d try it. It would be the most colossal sea battle in history, if those two fleets met in the open sea. With Fraser on the job and a slight advantage of visibility or other weather conditions on our side, such as we might get if we could choose our time with Jeremy’s help, I believe we could be reasonably sure of doing them in; at least enough to justify seeking an engagement.”
“Can’t you think of any scheme for baiting them to action at such a time?” said Mortimer.