-they
imbibe it from the salt air and from meeting all kinds of weather and
all kinds of men, I think--he has the quality of the scholar, with a
suspicion of merriness in his eye.

He was Chief of the War Staff at the Admiralty in the early stages of
the war, which means, I take it, that he assisted in planning the
moves on the chessboard. It fell to him to act; to apply the strategy
and tactics which he planned for others at sea while he sat at a desk.
It was his wit against von Spee's, who was not deficient in this
respect. If he had been he might not have steamed into the trap. The
trouble was that von Spee had some wit, but not enough. It would
have been better for him if he had been as guileless as a parson.

Sir Frederick is so gentle-mannered that one would never suspect
him of a "double bluff," which was what he played on von Spee. After
von Spee's victory over Cradock, Sturdee slipped across to the South
Atlantic, without anyone knowing that he had gone, with a squadron
strong enough to do unto von Spee what von Spee had done unto
Cradock.

But before you wing your bird you must flush him. The thing was to
find von Spee and force him to give battle; for the South Atlantic is
broad and von Spee, it is supposed, was in an Emden mood and
bent on reaching harbour in German South-West Africa, whence he
could sally out to destroy British shipping on the Cape route. When
he intercepted a British wireless message--Sturdee had left off the
sender's name and location--telling the plodding old Canopus seeking
home or assistance before von Spee overtook her, that she would be
perfectly safe in the harbour at Port William, as guns had been
erected for her protection, von Spee guessed that this was a bluff,
and rightly. But it was only Bluff Number One. He steamed to the
Falklands with a view to finishing off the old Canopus on the way
across to Africa. There he fell foul of Bluff Number Two. Sturdee did
not have to seek him; he came to Sturdee.

There was no convenient Dogger Bank fog in that latitude to cover
his flight. Sturdee had the speed of von Spee and he had to fight. It
was the one bit of strategy of the war which is like that of the story
books and worked out as strategy always does in proper story books.
Practically the twelve-inch guns of the Inflexible and the Invincible
had only to keep their distance and hang on to the Scharnhorst and
the Gneisenau in order to do the trick. Light-weights or middle-
weig