"But," I came out of my reverie presently, "you haven't yet told me what 'it' was that Bobby knew all about."
"No, I don't mean the books at all. I know a good deal about books. You can get so soaked in them that you make a whole artificial world out of them, quite self-contained, logical with itself at every single point, and absolutely out of touch with anything that really matters. Do you see what I mean?"
I wasn't sure that he did, and here was I, who do not talk easily to young men, quite anxious that he should.
"Well, let's put it another way. You say Bobby knew all about these equations and diagrams and things. Did he know what it was all _for_--_really_ for--not just wind-resistance or whatever you call it, but something more--why there should be aeroplanes _at all_, for example?"
I had said it badly, but I saw his brow clear. There was a kindling in the eyes he turned to me.
"It's funny you should say that," he said in a rather low voice, "because that's just what Bobby himself used to say. He used to say that anybody who'd passed his matric. could do what he did, and he always would have it that _I_ was the whole show. I didn't agree with him, of course, but--is that what you mean?"
"It is so far," I said. "What else did he say?"
"Well, he always said it was a jolly good thing I wasn't technical. And I did see what he meant by that. I mean to say things _are_ simple really, the big things I mean. You take the sea----" again his eyes wandered far out over it. "People talk an awful lot of bunk about the sea. They think bases are just harbors and ports and coaling-stations and so on. That a base is something fixed. Why, that's exactly what it isn't. You've got to get your coal and oil and stores, of course, but that's only like going into a shop and coming out again as quick as you can. It's only then that the job really begins. I'm afraid I'm talking an awful lot, sir, but I got it down to this: that a ship's only a ship when she's moving. She's no better than a stupid old breakwater when she isn't. I mean to say her real base is her course. Just an imaginary line to make a dash from and turn up where the trouble is. Focal points I believe they call 'em. At least that's the way I worked it out for myself."