“What of it? Surely, you would not suggest forcing a passage of the Kiel canal?”
“I don’t see why not, sir.”
Lord Hastings looked at the lad with surprise written all over his face.
“By Jove!” he said at last. “When it comes to finding ways of getting into trouble, you are the limit, as the Americans say.”
“But don’t you think it could be done, sir?” asked Frank.
“Well, I don’t know,” replied his commander. “It might be done, yes. And then again it might not. But what would be our object in getting into the Baltic?”
“Well, I understand that the Russians are having considerable trouble there,” replied Frank, “and we might be able to lend them a hand.”
“That’s true, too,” replied Lord Hastings. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Then what do you say, sir?” asked Frank.
Jack now added his voice to that of his chum, but for some moments Lord Hastings remained undecided. Frank, however, clinched the matter when he said: