ships before they
go through the hot tropical water if their speed is to be kept up.
They have gun power, but power without speed is useless for the work
which they have to do. After leaving England it will be a month before
the Squadron, of which they are to form the chief part, will be
concentrated in the South Seas. For two days at Devonport, and for
four weeks while at sea, there must be the completest secrecy if our
plans are to succeed. Without absolute secrecy we shall fail. The
Board of Admiralty is responsible for the sea, but not for the land.
We can make certain that no news of the despatch of these two cruisers
gets out at sea; can you, Mr. Chief Inspector Dawson, undertake that
no news gets out on land--that no whisper of their sailing reaches the
enemy by means of his spies on land?"

"It is a large order," said Dawson thoughtfully.

"It is a very large order," asserted Lord Jacquetot, frowning.

"But large or small, the thing must be done," broke in the First Lord.
"If this news gets out, and we fail to come up with the German
Squadron down south, the effect upon the public will be horrible. The
English people may even lose their perfect, their sublime, faith in
ME."

"They may lose their faith in the Navy," muttered Jacquetot.

"It is the same thing," said the First Lord.

"Can you let me know more details, my lord?" asked Dawson. "What is
the programme? I don't see at present how the arrival, docking, and
sailing of the battle-cruisers can possibly be kept secret, but there
may be a way if one could only think of it."

"If the _Intrepid_ and _Terrific_ arrive according to programme," said
Jacquetot, "they will not come up the Sound till after dark. Then in
the small hours they will slip into dock, and no one but the regular
dockyard hands will know that they are there. We will haul them out
also in the middle of the night, and they will be clear away by
daybreak, forty-eight hours after arrival. Coal and other stores are
on the spot in plenty, and the shells and cordite for the twelve-inch
guns can soon be got down from the Plymouth magazines. The secrecy of
the operation seems to me to turn on whether we can trust the dockyard
hands."

Dawson shook his head. "I wouldn't plump on that, my lord. There have
been enemy agents working in every dockyard in the kingdom for years
past, and we haven't spotted all of them. Still, we have our own men
working alongside of them--Scotland Yard men engaged