If I thought there was any real need for it, and I begin to think that perhaps there may be, I should be ready to present the United States with a Dreadnought to-morrow, and I don't know that I should need to spend very much less myself.

And," he went on, "there are thirty or forty others who could and would do the same.

Tidy little fleet we should soon have, you see, without a penny of taxation.

Of course, I know we would need the men, but we've a grand reserve to draw upon in the West.

They are not bothering about the navy in times of peace, but they'd stream into it fast enough if there were any real need." The chief steward appeared, followed by two or three of his subordinates.