"And,"
he added, "we'll finish the game first, and the Germans after"--just
what Drake had said about the Spaniards.
Nearing the rendezvous at nine the bugles sounded _Action Stations!_
for though the German ships were to come unarmed and only manned by
navigating crews it was rightly thought wiser not to trust them. You
never catch the Navy napping. So, when the two fleets met, every
British gun was manned, all ready to blow the Germans out of the water
at the very first sign of treachery. Led captive by British cruisers,
and watched by a hundred and fifty fast destroyers, as well as by a
huge airship overhead, the vanquished Germans steamed in between the
two victorious lines, which then reversed by squadrons, perfect as a
piece of clockwork, and headed for the Firth of Forth. Thus the vast
procession moved on, now in three lines-ahead, but filling the same
area as before: a hundred square miles of sea. In all, there were over
three hundred men-of-war belonging to the four greatest navies the
world has ever known.
At eight bells that afternoon all hands were piped aft by the
boatswains' whistles, the bugles rang out the _Sunset_ call, and down
came every German flag, never again to be flown aboard those vessels of
the High Sea Fleet.
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