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"There are searchlights on each side, mounted on the wings of the bridge."

I stared at him curiously. "Did all this information come to you from the other side?"

He said seriously: "Well, it doesn't just come. We have to send over and get it."

"Quite so," I said.

There was a little pause.

"You say that one of your young men brought forward this proposal," I remarked. "That was for dealing with a Raumboote?"

"That's right," he said.

"How does he intend to make the first contact with it? Would you require us to supply White Ensign ships to carry out the operation?"

He said: "Oh, no. That wasn't what we had in mind at all. What he proposes can be carried out with the resources that we have available. But as it is essentially a naval operation, we felt that you must know about it and pronounce upon it."

"I understand," I said. "What is it that he wants to do?"

"The Raumboote control their sardine-boats by coming up alongside and shouting at them through a megaphone," he said. "That's how they manage them. So long as they stick to the fishing-grounds arranged beforehand the Raumboote just cruise round and leave the boats to themselves. But if one strays away, the Raumboote steam after it, and the officer in charge orders it back by shouting at it through a megaphone."