Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/59

Rh ask today, and wanted first of all to know what the war game really meant.

“It’s just practice,” Captain Saulsby explained, “just to learn what to do if there was real war. Over across the sea they’re playing the game in earnest; a mistake there means a lost ship and the crew drowned, and a greater  danger to the country they’re guarding like  grim death. Please Heaven we won’t have that over here, but there’s many that are saying it is coming with another year.”

“War—us!” exclaimed Billy incredulously. “Why, surely we couldn’t have war!”

“It could come mighty easy,” the Captain insisted, “but well, it’s not here yet and that’s  something to be thankful for. But in this war game, they bring the fleet out for manœuvres and they play out their problems in naval  tactics like a great big match of chess, with  dreadnaughts and destroyers and submarines  for the pieces and the whole wide ocean for  their board. They divide up into two fleets and each one tries to destroy the other. There’s no real sinking, you understand, but, for instance, a torpedo-boat tries to creep up  to a battleship in the dark, and send up a  rocket to show that she’s supposed to have fired