Part 23 (1/2)
”Well, they probably will be in sight by the time we come up with the _Glasgow_,” said Captain Raleigh.
But two hours later, when the _Queen Mary_ and _Indefatigable_ came up with the other British s.h.i.+ps, no enemy had been sighted yet. It was then almost nine o'clock.
”You are sure you have not miscalculated the time?” Captain Raleigh asked of Frank and Jack.
”Positive, sir,” replied the former. ”Besides, you have the doc.u.ment relating to the attack.”
”True enough. The enemy probably has been delayed. Or perhaps they will await the coming of daylight.”
”It would be better if they did, for us, I mean, wouldn't it, sir?”
asked Frank.
”Much better,” replied his commander briefly.
”Then let us hope that is what happens.”
”But I am afraid it won't happen,” said Jack. ”If the Germans get this far safely, they won't wait for us to overtake them.”
”No; you're right there,” said Captain Raleigh. ”The thing that worries me is that, if they do get by us, they will spread out all over the sea. They will be able to raid the British coast, may succeed in running through the English channel, and then we shall have to round them up all over again. They would scatter over the seven seas.”
”Then we've got to lick 'em,” declared Frank, grimly.
Captain Raleigh smiled.
”That's the spirit I like to see,” he said quietly. ”It is the spirit that has carried the British flag to victory against overwhelming odds on many occasions.”
”But he is not an Englishman, sir,” said Jack with a smile.
”What?” exclaimed Captain Raleigh. ”Not an Englishman? Then what is he?”
”American,” was Jack's reply.
”Oh, well, it amounts practically to the same thing,” declared Captain Raleigh.
”Next to being an American,” said Frank, quietly, ”I would be English.”
The first officer, Lieutenant MacDonald, burst into the captain's cabin at this moment.
”Message from the _Glasgow_, sir!” he exclaimed. ”German battle squadron, steaming at twenty knots, sighted five miles off Jutland, sir!”
CHAPTER XV
THE FIRST GUN
Skagerak, in which the greatest naval battle of history was about to be fought, is an arm of the North Sea between Norway and Denmark. The scene of the battle was laid off Jutland and Horn Reef, on the southern extremity of Denmark.
From the reef of Heligoland, the main German base in the North Sea, to Jutland, is about one hundred miles as the crow flies. Therefore, it became evident that the German high sea fleet must have left the protection of that supposedly impregnable fortress some time before.
That the advance of the German fleet had been well planned was indicated by the very fact that it could successfully elude the British cruisers patrolling the entrance to the mine fields that guarded Heligoland itself. Could a British fleet of any size have got between the German high sea fleet and Heligoland the menace of the German fleet would have ended for all time.