look half so bad before I came up."

"Ah, it's the light that does it," observed the lieutenant, chaffing
him. "However, if you will go rolling in the coal-bunkers and making
love to the engineer's oil-cans, you must take the consequences!"

"I didn't," replied Bob indignantly. "You don't think I tumbled down
there on purpose, do you?"

"Perhaps not," said the other, smiling. "But, pray remember, you were
told to keep away from the gun; and, if you had obeyed orders, you
wouldn't have got into any mischief."

"Well, let us be thankful it is no worse," observed the Captain
cheerily. "I hope you are not hurt, Bob, by your roll dawn the
hatchway?"

"No, Captain," he answered, brightening up again after the snub of the
lieutenant anent his disobedience, "I fell on the coal-sacks quite
softly and haven't got a scratch."

"That's all right then," echoed Captain Dresser in his joking way;
adding to the young officer on his other side, "I wonder if all the
`cocked hats' have done examining the gun, and whether there's a chance
now for an old retired fogey like myself having a look at the damage?"

"I should think so, sir," replied the young officer. "The Admiral, I
see, has gone away, and the fellows also from the Ordnance department;
so, you'd better come and have a glance round while the coast is clear."

"I will," was the response of the old sailor, as, in company with the
lieutenant and Bob, he made his way through one of the watertight doors
in the forward bulkhead on to the fo'c's'le; the trio then grouping
themselves round the broken breech of the exploded weapon, all that was
left now of the whilom big forty-three ton gun!

"Ah! I can see how it happened," said the old sailor, after a cursory
inspection of the fractured portion. "The gun was strong enough at the
breech, but went at the muzzle. It has given way, of course, at its
weakest point."

"Yes," agreed the young lieutenant. "It has parted just here, where the
last protecting coil of steel has been shrunk on; the tube of the gun
has burst at this unprotected portion of it, right in front of the
chase."

"What's the reason, sir," asked Bob, "of its bursting there like that?"

"I suppose because the metal was unable to withstand the strain of the
powder charge," said the Captain. "So, Bob, it went!"

"Pardon me, but I don't think you've got it quite right, sir," observed
the lieutenant apologetically. "The gun was strong enough for the ol