XX + 

Captain Richard E. S. Saville-Samarez, C.B., M.V.O., sat alone in his cabin at his desk pondering the problems set before him by the terse Admiralty instructions received by wireless and cable, by the small Pacific chart before him bearing the estimated positions of von Spee and his squadron, and by the various possibilities which had gradually accumulated in his not highly imaginative brain. Of a surety his passage of the Panama Canal in H.M.S. Leopard with Penzance in company had caused very considerable stir. The Canal authorities had been dubious enough about letting him through, despite the fact that His Britannic Majesty’s representative on the spot had made preparations for his arrival twenty-four hours before, quoting terms and treaties which declared the Canal open to all shipping whether in peace or war. Cables everywhere had been alive with the news when he entered the Canal; excited American papers would on the morrow be informing their readers that at last the British Navy had shown a sign of life instead of leaving hapless squadrons to be exterminated by von Spee. Already Leopard’s presence would be notified to Berlin, and German diplomatists would protest the while the German Admiralty noted the information and weighed anxiously the effect of this slight dispersion upon the crushing superiority of the Grand Fleet at Scapa, where thirty Dreadnoughts awaited the emerging of the High Sea Fleet from its minefields and protected harbours. + 

Captain Saville-Samarez was not very different in appearance from what he had been twenty years before; he was not of the type that alters greatly with age. There were grey hairs now among his irrepressible brown ones, and authority and responsibility had brought character into his face; there were two firm vertical lines between his eyebrows, and his eyes seemed deeper set, and there was a grim line or two about his mouth, but he still seemed extraordinarily young, with his fresh complexion and upright carriage. Truth to tell, responsibility and authority sat lightly on his shoulders; he was never a man for deep thought or of much imagination, and the steadiness of his nerve had brought him out of whatever difficulties he had found himself in without any ageing flurry or worry. Little jobs like picking up moorings in a twenty-thousand-ton battleship in a crowded harbour with a full gale blowing he had simply accepted and carried through with automatically-acquired skill, and without any frightening pictures of what might happen if he made a mistake. + 

But just at present he was thinking deeply and trying his utmost to use all the imagination he possessed. He realized how fortunate he had been at present, the commander of a battle cruiser was perhaps the biggest plum in the Service open to one of his rank. Moreover, he held an independent command at present, and the exigencies of the Service had put Penzance under his command as well. He grinned to himself at the recollection of the series of chances which had kept Leopard free from admirals⁠—there were dozens of admirals who might have received the chance, and been glad of it, under some slight variation of circumstances. And an admiral would of course have gained the credit of any exploits Leopard might achieve, and Captain Saville-Samarez would be forgotten, forced to be content with a casual inevitable reference in the official report. + 

Nevertheless, an admiral, while receiving the credit of success, would also have to bear the responsibility for failure, and in the absence of an admiral that responsibility would belong to Captain Saville-Samarez, and the Captain was almost worried about it. His instructions gave him a free enough hand; what he had to do was to hunt down von Spee and his squadron, concerting for that purpose with the other officers on the spot. The only tie upon him was the emphasis laid in his orders upon the necessity to keep Leopard from damage, no destruction of armoured cruisers would be worth the loss of a battle cruiser. To a staff officer such a condition would appear natural enough, as Leopard had an advantage of at least four knots in speed over any of von Spee’s armoured cruisers, and her guns outranged any of von Spee’s by a couple of miles or more. But if Leopard by herself encountered von Spee with his three armoured cruisers all at once⁠—Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Ziethen⁠—things might not be so easy. Two cruisers might close into range while he was sinking the third, or they might all scatter and he would be lucky to bag one of them, while the light cruisers would make themselves unpleasant simultaneously by trying to torpedo him. Penzance might get badly hit too, and that would be his fault as well. The rage of the British public if it heard that a damaged British ship had had ignominiously to seek internment in a neutral port would be unbounded. + 

So that a battle, were one to take place, would demand caution⁠—it was this need for caution which was one of the factors worrying the Captain. And, all the same, a battle need not necessarily take place. Von Spee had last been heard of three thousand miles away, and to find a squadron hidden in three thousand miles of water was not an easy matter; on the contrary, it was an exceedingly difficult one. Von Spee might round the Horn and make a dash for home across the Atlantic and be halfway back before the news reached Leopard; he might even turn northward again and slip past Leopard and gain the Panama Canal⁠—and that would mean Captain Saville-Samarez’s professional ruin. The Captain realized that he needed all his wits to be sure of encountering the enemy. + 

And he wanted to encounter them too. With the age limit steadily pursuing him up the captain’s list, he could see plainly enough that without something extraordinary happening he would just reach rear-admiral’s rank before he had to retire. Unless he did something to distinguish himself he would end his life as rear-admiral on the retired list like fifty others he could name. He wanted to do something to make his name remembered, and the surest way would be to sink a German ship or two. Then the public would know him as “Saville-Samarez, the chap who caught von Spee,” or “Saville-Samarez, you know, ’im ’oo sank the Scharnhorst”; and the Captain knew how valuable such a label tied on to him would be. It would be very handy if he went in for politics; it might bring him a K.C.B.⁠—and he wanted knighthood, for it had been the reward of his grandfather and great-grandfather before him. Above all, it might obtain for him a fat, comfortable colonial governorship on his retirement, and Saville-Samarez, with no means beyond his pay, urgently desired one. With the reward of success so rich, and the penalty of failure so severe, it behoved him to devote all possible energy to the solution of the problem. + 

Characteristically, however, he was making his final decision by himself. He had run through the meagre data with the Captain of Penzance, and heard his opinion, but he had left the final making up of his mind until he was alone. He did not shirk responsibility, and he had the utmost contempt for those who did⁠—contempt which was only equalled by his contempt for councils of war in general. + 

He looked at the map, whereon von Spee was noted as last heard of at Valparaiso. He studied the scattered shipping lanes. He tried to get into von Spee’s skin and work out what he would do in von Spee’s position. He glanced once more through the last reports of the British secret agents. There was coal at German disposal in various South American Pacific ports, so that there was quite a sporting chance of von Spee returning northward. The wireless room of Leopard was continuously reporting hearing powerful messages in an unknown code, and it seemed extremely likely that they were warnings of his approach sent out to the German squadron. That made it possible that the German agents on the mainland thought it conceivable that German ships were near. + 

Now von Spee had fought at Coronel and had entered Valparaiso with only two armoured cruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. That was certain. Therefore his smallest armoured cruiser Ziethen, had been detached before Coronel. Whither would von Spee be likely to send her? Northward? Not likely, with the whole Japanese navy on the lookout for her, and not much plunder to be obtained in the Northern Pacific. Westward, to the Indian Ocean? That was the richest field of all; but Emden was there already, and the English fleet could as well hunt down two cruisers as one. Besides, Charybdis lay on that route and had made no report of meeting German ships, although that was no real proof that Ziethen had not gone that way. (Captain Saville-Samarez did not appreciate the profound truth of this last deduction.) Southwestward, to New Zealand and Australian waters? Quite likely. But in that case Captain Saville-Samarez had no business with her; his duty was to get into touch with the main body. But supposing Ziethen had not been sent anywhere like this? Supposing she was still near the American coast? Shipping certainly had not reported her, but she might have her own reasons for lying in concealment. She might have been in collision or had engine-room trouble. Certainly it was odd that she had neither fought at Coronel nor been reported elsewhere. Now supposing she had been damaged, where would she try to effect repairs? Somewhere within wireless reach of Panama too, added Captain Saville-Samarez, making a false deduction from Herr Schmidt’s activities without making allowance for that gentleman’s supreme conscientiousness and ignorance of Ziethen’s whereabouts. Captain Saville-Samarez looked at the map just as Captain von Lutz had done a week before, and came to exactly the same conclusion. The Galapagos Archipelago presented the most opportunities to a ship in need of repair. + 

Captain Saville-Samarez went on to consider ways and means. The Archipelago lay a little out of his direct course south from Panama. But Penzance’s most economical cruising speed was far in excess of Leopard’s. The ships would overlook far more water separated than in company. And Penzance’s speed was far larger than that of any one of von Spee’s squadron, except perhaps Dresden. She could look after herself and keep out of danger by herself unless she experienced the very worst of luck⁠—and Captain Saville-Samarez was not of the type which makes mental pictures of what might happen in the very worst of circumstances. He reached his final decision with promptitude and did not think about it again. His signal flew for the Penzance’s Captain to come on board Leopard, and a few quite brief sentences explained to that officer what Captain Saville-Samarez wanted done. + 

So that when the Captain of Penzance reached his own ship again he set a fresh course which gradually took his ship away from Leopard, diverging slightly away to the westward as the two ships headed south across the Bay of Panama. Leading Seaman Albert Brown at this moment was only slightly thirsty; Muller’s bullet did not hit him until sunset that day, when Penzance and Leopard had diverged until they were quite out of sight of each other. + 