“That one looks queer,” Jim said, indicating a vessel close in-shore; and the quartermaster grinned.
“She’s strolled ashore, an’ broke her back,” he said, cheerfully. “Good enough for her, too—and for the lot of ’em. Don’t it do your heart good to see ’em, miss?”—to Norah, who came up at the moment. “Lyin’ there with their dinky little black an’ white an’ red flags trailin’ out over their sterns, afraid to move; an’ the barnacles a-growin’ on ’em. They grow quick, too, in this nice warm water!”
“Are they the German ships?” Norah asked.
Jim nodded assent.
“Thirty-one of them,” he said, an unusual note of pride in his quiet voice. “Most of them have been there since the first fortnight of the war, when all the German merchant-shipping scurried for cover.”
“And there they sit,” said Wally, happily, “afraid to show their noses out, because they know they’ll be caught—and a little British cruiser comes and counts them now and then, like an old dog rounding up a mob of sheep.”
“They’ve sold all their cargoes for food,” said the quartermaster. “Ate ’em up, like—an’ much them Spaniards ashore gave ’em for the lot! Them Las Palmas dagoes must be pretty wealthy these times. An’ the beggars can’t get away, nor do nothink. Must make ’em feel pretty savage, seein’ ships like us come strollin’ in an’ out.”
“By Jove, it must!” Jim uttered. “Here are we, worth a million and a half of money—and just the cargo England wants—meat and wool and foodstuffs; and they’ve got to watch us go out safely! Wouldn’t it make you permanently sour!”
“Well, it brings home what sea-power means,” Mr. Linton said. “Not a bad thing to remember, this harbour, when things go wrong at the Front—and to realise that the same state of affairs is going on in many harbours. I’d like to know how many German ships are bottled up, all over the world; she can’t have much trade left.”
“Why, you won’t find the German merchant flag afloat, sir,” said the quartermaster, “unless it’s sittin’ tight in a neutral port like this. As for her trade——!” He snapped his fingers. “Well, she’s a long way off beat yet; but she ain’t doin’ any business!”