"But——"
"Don't start butting in with your confounded 'buts,'" exclaimed Trevorrick, with a tinge of asperity. "You say you've been considering the matter. How far have you gone into the practical side of it? I can make a pretty shrewd guess. You haven't even scratched the epidermis of the problem. I have. Cast your eyes over this."
From his pocket-box, Trevorrick produced a leaf of a notebook. On it was written in small, carefully-formed letters, the following:
1. The vessel.
2. Crew.
3. Maintenance.
4. Cruising limits.
5. Communication with shore.
"Now," continued Trevorrick briskly, "I've gone deeply into the question. We'll run over the various items. Then we can discuss details; but remember, I want constructive, not destructive criticism. Here I am trying to put you on to a get-rich-quick scheme. That's the main idea. It's for your benefit—and mine. First, the ship. I propose adopting R 81."
R 81 was the Polkyll Creek Shipbreaking Yard's latest acquisition. She had been towed round from Devonport only a couple of days previously and had been placed in the mud-dock alongside the rapidly-disintegrating hull of her former sister-submarine R 67.
"Bless my soul, man!" interrupted Pengelly, heedless of the senior partner's caution. "You'd never get her outside Falmouth Harbour."
"You're bearing in mind the Admiralty inspector," declared Trevorrick, purposely refraining from showing displeasure at the interruption. "He'll be here to-morrow or Friday. After that, it will be three months before he shows up again. Then I can manage him all right. No, I don't intend to offer him half a crown to look the other way. But there's not the slightest reason why we shouldn't hoodwink him. The moment he goes after his next visit, we'll start operations. R 81 goes under the covered shed; R 67 will be moved into R 81's berth. It's not altogether a stroke of luck that we haven't started cutting into R 67's hull below the waterline. When the inspector comes again he won't see R 67. She'll be broken up entirely as far as he's concerned. R 67 will assume R 81's number. We'll leave enough of the hull for that. The pirate submarine, ex-R 81, will already be nearing completion well out of the sight of the official eye."
"Trevorrick, I always thought I had the bump of imagination," declared Pengelly. "I give you best."
"Imagination isn't of much use, unless you put it to a practical purpose," rejoined the other. "What I'm proposing can be done; more, it's going to be done."