"I prefer to stand, my lord. When I want to think I do a bit of sentry-go."
"So do I!" exclaimed the First Lord. "All my most famous speeches were composed while I walked up and down my dressing-room before my--" He broke off hastily, but as neither Jacquetot nor Dawson were listening, he might have completed the sentence without revealing the secrets of his looking-glass.
"May I speak my mind, my lords?" asked Dawson.
"It is what you are here for," replied Jacquetot.
"I always work on certain general principles. They apply here. People will talk; that is certain. If one doesn't want them to talk about something really important, one puts up something else conspicuous, harmless, and exciting to occupy their minds. In your politics" --turning to the First Lord with an air of simplicity--"when you've made a thorough mess of governing England, and don't want to be found out, you set the people fighting about Home Rule for Ireland. I don't mean you, sir, but politicians generally."
"Quite so," said the First Lord, blinking.
"Well, see here. We don't want any talk about the _Intrepid_ and _Terrific_. So, before they arrive, we must give the people of the Three Towns a real titbit of excitement. Battle-cruisers come to dock in Devonport quite often when they are damaged. Two battle-cruisers which had been mined or submarined, one towing the other, would be a pretty picture in the Sound. It would set all the folk talking for days, and no one would think that two damaged cruisers had anything to do with the South Seas. Everybody would say, 'What cruel luck. If the _Terrific_ and _Intrepid_ hadn't got blown up they would be just right and handy to send down south. As it is--' And then the German agents would somehow get the news to Holland--we would help them all we could in a quiet way--that the _Intrepid_ and _Terrific_, two fast battle-cruisers, had been nearly lost, and were being patched up at Devonport. The Germans, hearing the glorious news, would hug themselves and say that now was the time for the High Seas Fleet to come out and smash Jellicoe. The last thing in their minds would be any concentration in the south against their own Pacific Squadron. That's how I apply my general principles to this case. Meanwhile, of course, the _Terrific_ and _Intrepid_, well and sound, would be racing away down to the South Seas and no one in the Three Towns--except the dockyard hands, whom we would look after--and no one at all in Germany, would have a glimmer of the real truth."