piece of metal Tom
had seen coming down from the sky. That part of the cannon forming a
portion of the breech had buried itself deep in the earth. It had
landed close to Ned--so close that, as he said, the wind of it, as well
as the concussion, perhaps, had thrown him with enough force to send
the breath from him.

"Glad to hear that, old man!" exclaimed Tom, with a sigh of relief. "If
you'd been hurt I should have blamed myself."

"That would have been foolish. I took the same chance that you did,"
answered Ned, as he arose, and limped off between the captain and Tom.

A great silence seemed to have followed the terrific report. And now
the officers and soldiers began to recover from the stupor into which
the accident had thrown them. Sentries began pouring into the proving
grounds from other portions of the barracks, and an ambulance call was
sent in.

General Waller's comrades had hurried out to him, and were now leading
him away. He did not seem to be much hurt, though, like many others, he
had received numerous cuts and scratches from bits of stone and gravel
scattered by the explosion, as well as from small bits of metal that
were thrown in all directions.

"Are you hurt, General?" asked Admiral Woodburn, as he put his arm
about the shoulder of the inventor.

"No--that is to say, I don't think so. But what happened? Did they fire
some other gun in our direction by mistake?"

For a moment they all hesitated. Then the Admiral said, gently:

"No, General. It was your own gun--it burst."

"My gun! My gun burst?"

"That was it. Fortunately, no one was killed."

"My gun burst! How could that happen? I drew every plan for that gun
myself. I made every allowance. I tell you it was impossible for it to
burst!"

"But it did burst, General," went on the Admiral. "You can see for
yourself," and he turned around and waved his hand toward the barbette
where the gun had been mounted. All that remained of it now was part of
the temporary carriage, and a small under-portion of the muzzle. The
entire breech, with the great block, had been blown into fragments, so
powerful was the powder used. The projectile one watcher reported, had
gone about three hundred yards over the top of the barbette and then
dropped into the sea, very little of the force of the explosive having
been expended on that. A large piece of the gun had also been lost in
the water off shore.

"My gun burst! My gun burst!" murmured General Waller