As for me, I am beginning to believe that as far as the wireless and guns are concerned, Fourgues is more than right. But there has been no time to reflect on all this because the local press and the civil authorities have made the very devil’s own fuss over the affair of the _Mer-Morte_ and the _Pamir_. Old man, I’ve had my biography in the papers of the town and you’d never believe what a wonderful chap I am. They interviewed me after Fourgues and Villiers, and hurrah for the heroism of our sailors, the mastery of the sea, German submarine bluff, and the efficacious protection exercised by the Allied Admiralties over our fleets! No doubt of it, when they want to knock the public, the Censor fairly lets the papers rip. Well, they invited all three of us to a municipal banquet. The chief Naval Officer came with an aide-de-camp, and all the swells were there. We were given the feed of our lives. When they came to the toasts, the Mayor, the Port-Captain, and the President of the Chamber of Commerce got off a lot of rubbish they had collected from morning papers. They know almost as much about the sea as I know about painting in oils. But the one who took the bun was the Naval Brass Hat, who spoke one before last. During the afternoon he had blackguarded Fourgues as though he were a cabin-boy and refused to transmit any of the requests Fourgues made. The same evening when the champagne appeared, he fairly buttered him up. “I drink,” he said, “to gallant Captain Fourgues, whose presence of mind and whose seamanship have once more proved to the Germans how vain are their alleged defeats inflicted on the Naval supremacy of the Allies! An accident is in no sense a defeat. I can state officially that precautions have been taken. Captain Fourgues will not again find a case like that of the _Mer-Morte_!” I was struck dumb. Fourgues replied. You know that when he wants to he can speak better than I can spit. But I saw his beard was moving in a way peculiar to him, and he was creasing the tablecloth with his finger-nails. I wondered what on earth he was going to say to the crowd of them, but I needn’t have been anxious. “Thank you,” he said. “I am a sailor, and do not speak well except on board my ship. Thank you!” And then he sat down. Simply that and nothing more. Well, old man, there’s nothing in being able to make speeches, for they nearly brought the house down, the big bug made most noise of all. After this flourish the meeting broke up.