ng more than an abrasion; for
big guns have pretty thick cuticles. When the storm was over, the
gunners would move their treasure to another hiding-place; which
would mean a good deal of work, on account of its size.

It is the inability of gun to see gun, and even when seen to knock out
gun, which has put an end to the so-called artillery duel of pitched-
battle days, when cannon walloped cannon to keep cannon from
walloping the infantry. Now when there is an action, though guns still
go after guns if they know where they are, most of the firing is done
against trenches and to support trenches and infantry works, or with a
view to demoralizing the infantry. Concentration of artillery fire will
demolish an enemy's trench and let your infantry take possession of
the wreckage remaining; but then the enemy's artillery concentrates
on your infantry and frequently makes their new habitation untenable.

Noiselessly except for a little click, with chickens clucking in a field
near by, the big breech-block which held the shell fast, sending all the
power of the explosion out of the muzzle, was swung back and one
looked through the shining tube of steel, with its rifling which caught
the driving band and gave the shell its rotation and accuracy in its
long journey, which would close when, descending at the end of its
parabola, its nose struck building, earth, or pavement and it exploded.

Wheels that lift and depress and swing the muzzle, and gadgets with
figures, and other scales which play between the map and the
gadgets, and atmospheric pressure and wind-variation, all worked out
with the same precision under a French hedge as on board a
battleship where the gun-mounting is fast to massive ribs of steel--it
seemed a matter of book-keeping and trigonometry rather than war.

If a shell from this gun were to hit at the corner of Wall Street and
Broadway at the noon hour, it would probably kill and wound a
hundred men. If it went into the dug-out of a support trench it would
get everybody there; but if it went ten yards beyond the trench into
the open field, it would probably get nobody. "Cover!" someone
exclaimed, while we were looking at the gun; and everybody promptly
got under the branches of a tree or a shed. A German aeroplane was
cruising in our direction. If the aviator saw a group of men standing
about he might draw conclusions and pass the wireless word to send
in some shells at whatever number on the German gunners'