"And if we meet her and if she speaks to us, sir?" asked Dalzell. "What if she even wishes to entertain us, or to claim our escort?"
"Do whatever you can to please the Countess," replied the Admiral, promptly. "Be agreeable to her in any way that does not interfere with other and more important duties to which I have assigned you."
Judging by a sign from the fleet commander that the interview was now at an end, Dave and Dan rose, standing at attention.
"Perhaps I have given you a wrong impression in one particular," Admiral Timworth continued. "I do not wish you to understand, gentlemen, that I have intimated that any power, or any combination of powers, has directly ordered any act that would lead to the sinking of British warships. Governments, even the worst, do not act in that way. The thing which the power I have in mind may have done is to give certain secret agents a free hand to bring about war between England and the United States. Undoubtedly, the secret agents at the bottom of this conspiracy have been left free to choose their own methods. Thus the foreign government interested in this conspiracy could feel that it did not order the commission of a crime, no matter what might happen as the result. Now, gentlemen, have you any questions to ask?"
"None, sir," Dave Darrin responded immediately.
"None, sir," echoed Dalzell.
"Then you may go," rejoined Admiral Timworth, rising and returning the parting salutes of the young officers.
It was presently noised about among the ship's company that Ensigns Darrin and Dalzell had been ordered ashore on special duty.
"How did you work it?" Lieutenant Barnes irritably demanded of Danny Grin.