While this kindly, rather indolent German Admiral was marking time off the Chilean coast, the squadron which was to avenge the blunder of Coronel was assembling from the ends of the earth towards the appointed rendezvous off the Brazilian coast. The _Bristol_, a sister of the _Glasgow_, had come in from a long cruise in the West Indies, during which she had met and exchanged harmless shots with another German wanderer, the _Karlsruhe_. The _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ were racing down from the north. The _Cornwall_ and _Kent_, burning to show that even “County” cruisers were not wholly useless in battle, and the armoured cruiser _Carnarvon_ were already in the South Atlantic. The poor old _Canopus_ and the _Glasgow_ had foregathered at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands on November 8th, but were immediately ordered north to Montevideo to meet the other cruisers on the passage south. They left in accordance with these orders, but the _Canopus_ was turned back by wireless, so that Port Stanley might have some naval protection against the expected von Spee raid. Here the _Canopus_ was put aground in the mud, painted in futurist colours, and converted into a land fort. With her four 12-inch guns she could at least have made the inner harbour impassable to the Germans. The _Glasgow_ docked for repairs at Rio, and then joined the avenging squadron which had concentrated off Brazil, and with them swept down to the Falkland Islands which were reached upon the evening of December 7th. All the English ships, to which had been committed the destruction of von Spee, had then arrived. The stage was set and the curtain about to go up upon the second and final act of the Pacific drama. Upon the early morning of the following day, as if in response to a call by Fate, von Spee and his squadron arrived. After five weeks of delay he had at last made up his mind to strike. CHAPTER VIII IN THE SOUTH SEAS: CLEANING UP Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer . . . And all the clouds that lour’d In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.