"What for?" asked Cumberleigh.
"Pending a decision as to their disposal," replied Meredith. "Personally I think it's rather a good scheme towing the lot out to sea and sinking them, as the Admiralty suggested."
"Why?" asked the R.A.F. captain. "It would be a precious waste of good material."
"It would," agreed Kenneth; "but at the same time it would do away with any danger of friction between the Allies as to the sharing-out deal. Without a doubt it was the British Navy that brought about the surrender. The Yanks, too, helped considerably. But neither we nor the Americans want the ships. France, Italy and Japan might; but there, you see, is a chance of squabbling. However, there they are, and seem likely to remain until Peace is signed."
"At the same time it's a risky business leaving Fritz on board," declared Cumberleigh. "Everyone on the station is of the same opinion, but, I hear, the Commander-in-Chief is helpless in the matter. Virtually the ships are German territory, even though they daren't hoist their dirty flags."
"And we cannot board them to see what's going on," added Meredith. "All we can do is to overhaul the weekly relief boat to see that she carries no war material. There was a yarn knocking around that the Huns were deliberately tampering with the big guns."
"Yes," said Cumberleigh, "cutting deep grooves round the chases and filling them in with putty and paint, so that if they were fired they would burst and kill the guns' crews. That was authenticated, and photographs printed showing Fritz's rotten trick."
"The Hun relief boat's due to-morrow," observed Meredith. "Wakefield and I have to meet her at the entrance to Pentland Firth. Like to come along with us?"
"Delighted," replied Cumberleigh, as he motioned to the mechanic to "carry on." "Look there a minute," he added. "See that Hun just abaft the after-turret?"
Kenneth levelled his binoculars upon the deck of the ship indicated—the giant Hindenburg. The blimp was barely five hundred feet up, and at that height it seemed as if one could touch the trucks of her mast with a fishing-rod.