Max did not answer immediately.
"Lieutenant Körner has prepared his report," he said presently. "I am his subordinate. It is not for me to account for what he has done. We have not been idle."
"But Lieutenant Körner is not here," pursued the admiral, "and I wish to know what ships have been sunk. How many of their dreadnoughts have you sent to the bottom of the German Ocean since last we met?"
"None, sir," Max answered. "Those which we have seen have been too well guarded for us to approach them within striking distance. We sank a Swedish steamer carrying timber to the Thames, a British collier coming out of the Tyne. We lay in wait three days to torpedo a Harwich passenger boat, which slipped past us, after all. Many steamers have escaped us by their higher speed and their manoeuvring. Even the English patrol-trawlers now carry guns; but we have accounted for four of them."
"Good," nodded the admiral. "I would have every one of their wretched fishing boats swept off the seas. They are our worst enemies. Do not be deceived by their seeming innocence, my dear Max. While they are fishing, they are also watching and carrying information. Sink them—sink them without warning, without mercy. Naturally you have not allowed any of their crews to escape?"
Max glanced into the admiral's red-bearded face.
"But yes," he admitted. "In each case we have given them time to take to their boats."
"Thunder and lightning!" exclaimed his uncle, stamping a heavy foot. "This will not do. You must not permit your ridiculous scruples of humanity to interfere with your duty—the duty of sinking every vessel you can find, with every one in her. Let none escape. Remember that every ship now sailing the seas is either an enemy or a friend of the enemy, whose purpose it is to help the hateful English and to do harm to our beloved Fatherland!"
He puffed desperately at his cigar as if with the intention of finishing it as speedily as possible.
"Listen, my dear Max," he went on. "In future you shall put aside all scruple. Give no warning of your intentions, give no time for escape; but with gun or torpedo, sink, sink, sink without a moment's mercy!"