Bobby smiled. "I know where you got that dope. I saw it too, and I wonder what good the chap thinks he is doing by making out that we have gone to the dogs. He's a knocker. Pay no attention to him, Adam. I have faith that all our navy men aren't fools. There may even be one or two who know almost as much as he does. You ought to conduct a few patriotic meetings. And be a speaker, Adam. You could make glorious speeches. I'd come."
"Flags flying,—to the great advantage of the Bunting Trust,—and 'The Star Spangled Banner' sung several times, and you'd have to stand with your hat off, and take cold in early May, and hear every man in the county who has ever held office give the history of the country, and Washington's Farewell Address, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech delivered by a talented young lady from our high school,—if we had one,—and brass bands, and parades, and me for drum-major, I suppose, Bobby. Buncombe! There wouldn't be an able-bodied man in the glorious assemblage—except the band and the speakers. Humbug and buncombe! True patriotism doesn't go about waving the flag and shouting. Patriotic meetings are essentially for women and children."
Bobby laughed delightedly. "Noble sentiments, Adam. But I wish you would."
I shook my head. "Never," I said. "But I could give you some hints for your submarine chasing. You could put them in as your own ideas too. I promise not to dispute your claims."
"I'm a little shy of your hints, but fire away."
"Well, this is my best. I have others, but they are too obvious. First you would have to set a spindle on Great Ledge, a spindle with a capacious cage at the top. Another one on Sow and Pigs, and one on Hen and Chickens, and on Devil's Bridge. Then, when there were some submarines over here,—Germany says there are none now, and I believe it,—when they came, put a live pig in each of the cages. It's in the nature of baiting the trap, you see. All you'd have to do would be to sit tight, and remove the wrecks. They'd all pile up on those ledges. Germans can't resist the lure of pig."
"That's not a half bad idea, Adam," Bobby said. "Of course it might be necessary to renew the bait or feed the pig, but that would be easy; and pig is pretty high just now. There's a good pun there, but I'll leave it to you.—Jimmy!"
Jimmy was talking to the girl whose name I did not yet know, but he turned at Bobby's hail.
"Jimmy," Bobby said, "Adam's just given me a most valuable hint for trapping submarines. Here it is in all its beauty." And he proceeded to give my idea in more detail than I had done, adding some more ledges which appealed to him as likely spots, Watch Hill Ledge, to the east of Fisher's Island being one, I remember. "You forgot that, Adam. It would be a crackerjack, almost level with the water. In any sea at all, and the tide right, the water opens every little while and shows the rock. It's fearsome."