lsewhere,
would have to join in the search for them. But so vast was the area that
they might elude their enemies for months.

British ships were already cruising near the Horn, possibly unaware that
a concentration of the Germans had been effected. It was not unlikely
that von Spee might be able to cut off and to destroy stray units of the
patrolling squadrons. The Graf could see many opportunities of serving
effectively the cause of the Fatherland. He must utilize them to the
full.

[Sidenote: Cradock near coast of Chili.]

[Sidenote: German cruisers sighted.]

Sir Christopher Cradock, meanwhile, had rounded the Horn once more, and
was cruising northwards up the coast of Chili. That coast, indeed, once
the haunt of corsairs and filibusters, was rich in historic associations
and in natural beauties. An element of grandeur and of mystery seemed to
hover around the countless ridges and peaks of the Andes, stretching,
with the gleam of their eternal snows, for four thousand miles, and
gazing down across the illimitable waters of the occident. Upon the
plateaux, miles above sea level, stood old stone temples and pyramids
which rivalled in massiveness and ingenuity those of Egypt and of
Babylon. The student of ancient civilizations could trace, in the mystic
deities of the Incas and Araucanians, a strange similarity to the
deities of the Chaldeans and Babylonians. Speculation upon this analogy
formed a fascinating theme. This coast, too, was sacred to memories that
could not but be dear to sailors as gallant and daring as Cradock, since
his services in China, in 1900, was known to be. Among other familiar
British names, Cochrane, Lord Dundonald, had won enduring glory in the
struggle for Chilian independence, nearly a hundred years before. The
conditions of naval warfare had, indeed, through the introduction of
armour and the perfection of weapons, radically changed since Cochrane,
in a series of singularly audacious exploits, had overcome the fleets of
Spain. Sea-fighting had become purely a matter of science. The object of
strategy was to concentrate faster ships and more powerful guns against
weaker force. The odds with which Cradock was to contend against the
Germans were greater in proportion, if less in bulk, than the odds with
which Cochrane had contended, with his peasant crews and his hulks,
against the Spanish "wooden-walls". Admiral Cradock now knew that there
were two more cruisers in the neighbourhood than