"Your imagination is working in great shape, Eric," his engineer friend replied. "It's a pity you don't think far enough ahead."
"How's that?"
"I suppose you'd have your pirate vessel chosen for speed?"
"Of course," the boy answered. "She'd have to be fast in order to make a getaway."
"Here's where you're forgetting your ship-building," his friend warned him. "Could she have speed if she were armed with heavy guns? Wouldn't she necessarily have to be partly the build of a man-o'-war, say a cruiser?"
"Perhaps she would," said the boy thoughtfully.
"And if she had the build of a cruiser, would she have the speed of an Atlantic greyhound?"
"That's true," admitted Eric, "she wouldn't. Still that wouldn't matter, if the only craft that could chase her was a craft without guns."
"Wouldn't it?" his friend queried. "Do you know how they chase wolves in some parts of Western Canada?"
"No."