Evans pondered awhile. “I have a wild scheme in my head,” he said. “It’s one of those notions of which I’m the victim now and then.”
“Let’s have it,” said Mortimer.
Evans then propounded a series of imaginary situations and their strategical and tactical developments, which aroused in Mortimer a strange alternation of enthusiasm and doubt. At the end he felt enough conviction that there was merit in the scheme to satisfy him that it should in some way be followed up.
“Don’t you think I had better take this up with the General Staff, and send some suggestion to the Admiral?” he asked.
“No,” answered Evans. “Admirals don’t like their strategy and tactics fed to them by civilian secretaries much better than by gunners. Besides, it’s probably full of weak points, as I’ve outlined it. I’m not a trained admiral, you know. Anyway, give them a chance to work it out themselves, and they’ll probably improve on it in doing so. If the premises are sufficiently suggestive to the Staff at Punta Delgada, they may easily hit on the main ideas, or something better. Fraser’s a wizard at that sort of thing.”
“So, you fancy the premises can be made sufficiently suggestive?” said Mortimer.
“I shouldn’t wonder a bit,” answered Evans with a smile.
“See here!” said Mortimer. “It’s damn silly for you to be going on as a warrant officer. You ought to be taking the responsibilities you know how to handle, and taking them squarely. I could work the regulations now so as to have you promoted to commander very quickly, and it wouldn’t be long before you’d be a captain. Then you could fit into the fleet more nearly where you belong.”
“Oh, come,” said Evans. “I wouldn’t know what to do with all that rank, and I should be looked on with suspicion and jealousy. I’d always be having to buck the resulting hostility. No, no, Sam, I can carry on much better as I am, doing things in my own way. For one thing, I find it an enormous advantage to be able to get right into the game as I’ve done on the destroyers, particularly on that sub hunt, and see how things really are. The more gold braid you have on, the less things look as they really are when you go to look at them.”
“I’d give my eye teeth to get into the fleet and really see how things are going,” said Mortimer.