Admiral von Hilliger examined them with keen scrutiny, stroking his long, fair beard with satisfaction as he observed particular features which were new to him.
"Ja," he nodded, making a mark with his pencil. "We shall use this channel when we go to bombard their fortified coast towns. It is just here that our invading troops can make a landing. You have two and a quarter fathoms of water close up to the beach at low tide—a lonely piece of exposed coast, within easy reach of a railway junction, and three cathedral cities. There are no fortifications to oppose us; and the little English Army is already in France! But first, my dear Max, we shall annihilate their miserable North Sea Fleet. Once we have got rid of their boasted Dreadnoughts and secured command of the seas, the rest will be as simple as eating your breakfast."
"If there is going to be a sea battle, uncle," Max ventured boldly, "I should not like to miss seeing it, and perhaps taking a small part in it."
The admiral shrugged his decorated shoulders and took up the chart of Alderwick Knoll.
"As a holiday entertainment it would be interesting," he responded. "And certainly there are ways in which your knowledge of the enemy may be useful."
"Also my knowledge of submarines," Max added.
"So?" returned his uncle, studying the chart. "And you have the wish to fight under the sea, eh? Well, my dear child, that is perhaps possible! We have many under-sea boats in commission, and many more building, for which we shall require crews. I will arrange it. In the meantime, you will be provided with a midshipman's uniform and remain on board the Schiller. But what is this so carefully prepared chart?"
"It is a reef off the English coast, sir," Max explained, "a place convenient for our submarines to lie safely hidden, to pounce out upon enemy ships and sink them. Also, there is a secret store of petrol buried in the sand dunes quite near. My father has not been idle."
"Good!" said the admiral. "Yes, we shall sink their ships—merchant ships as well as vessels of war. We shall blockade their coasts, and so, stopping their food supplies, starve the contemptible English. But that will be when we have destroyed their battle fleets, as we shall do as soon as they choose to come out from their fortified harbours, where at present they remain in close hiding."
Max Hilliger very well knew that Sir John Jellicoe's Grand Fleet was not in hiding; but he did not wish just now to contradict his uncle. He simply said: