Max Hilliger had constantly heard and read of the huge navy, the construction of which had played so prominent a part in Germany's plan of world-dominion; but his dreams had never presented anything to compare with the vast number and might of the warships now arrayed before his wondering eyes.
They stretched in an almost unbroken line across from Cuxhaven to Brunsbuttel—battleships which appeared to him far more powerful than any of the British Dreadnoughts that he had seen passing in the distance from the cliffs of Haddisport; armoured cruisers that looked like impregnable floating fortresses; light cruisers built for speed; and a vast multitude of destroyers, submarines, mine-layers, troopships, and armed liners.
His heart seemed to swell within him in patriotic pride. This was the fleet designed for the conquest of Britain, and he could not imagine how its purpose could fail.
Believing that the sea power of Great Britain was doomed to be broken, and that the future of the Fatherland was fated to be one of shining glory and greatness, he was thankful that he was a German; thankful that it was now to be his privilege to fight for her in the conquest of her worst enemy.
Lieutenant Körner steered the ketch to her anchorage beside his submarine at the rear of the main fleet; and, in the deepening dusk of a rainy evening, Max was conveyed in a motor-launch to Admiral von Hilliger's flagship.
The admiral was at dinner and could not be interrupted even to receive his nephew from England, but Max found friends amongst the junior officers, and at length he was admitted.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GERMAN ADMIRAL.
In the admiral's state-room, Max quickly won his uncle's favour by producing his collection of special maps and charts—the same collection which Mark Redisham had discovered in the pigeon-loft at Sunnydene.
On the charts of the North Sea were clearly shown not only the depths in fathoms and the positions of newly-placed buoys and lightships for the guidance of pilots, but also the areas which the British Admiralty had sown with defensive mines.