liner. … That was the Marines' three-pounder. Good! … Ah—ah! Bad. Damn bad! Short! Miles short! Who fired that shot?'
A shell had burst short of the mark, and the captain of that gun was asked politely if he supposed Government supplied him with three-pound shell for the purpose of shooting mackerel.
And so we went on, till the big guns had fired their quota and the Maxims ran out in one last fiends' flurry, and target-practice for the month was over. The rock that had been grey was white, and a few shining cartridge-cases lay beside each gun.
SQUIRTING DEATH THROUGH A HOSE
Then the horror of the thing began to soak into me. What I had seen was a slow peddling-out of Admiralty allowance for the month, and it seemed to me more like squirting death through a hose than any ordinary gun-practice. What will it be when all the ammunition-hoists are working, when the Maxims' water-jacket puffs off in steam; when the three-pounder charges come up a dozen at a time to be spent twenty to the minute; when the sole limit of four-inch fire is the speed with which the shells and cases can be handled? What will it be when the Real Thing is upon us?
And the smiling, careless faces answered with one merry accord: 'Hell! Every kind of Hell! But— things will happen.'
In ancient days there was an etiquette in sea battles. No line-of-battle ship fired at a frigate unless the latter deliberately annoyed her. Then she
