"Because of the English fleet?"
"Exactly. The English fleet has swept the German navy off the ocean. The only place left for them is the Baltic."
"That's wonderful, isn't it?" exclaimed Dubois.
"Yes, it is, and most people don't give England half the credit she deserves for that. Just because her fleet doesn't fight a battle every day and do a lot of grandstand work people think it isn't doing anything important. In my opinion it has won the biggest victory of the whole war so far."
"By keeping the German fleet bottled up you mean?" asked Jacques.
"That's it," said Earl decidedly. "Take the English fleet away and let the German warships come out of their hole and see what would happen to the Allies!"
"What would happen?" inquired Dubois.
"Well first of all they'd stop the shipment of all supplies for us from America. Think what that would mean. Then again they'd soon starve out England and she wouldn't be able to send any more soldiers over here to France."
"They haven't sent so many anyway," muttered Dubois.
"Yes," agreed Earl, "but they're sending them now all right. England only had a small army at the beginning of the war and it takes time to make a good soldier just as it takes time to make a good anything else. They'll send plenty of men, don't you worry, and I feel sure there are a good many more here right now than you have any idea of."