of the _Dumont_.
The magnetos fetched her. But wait--"

In the glare of the searchlight he could see they had lowered a boat
and were recovering the torpedo. He saw a group of young officers
gather about it as it was hauled aboard, and then in a minute or so the
red and green Ardois lights began to wink. As Armitage watched with
straining eyes he spelled the message as it came, letter by letter.

"A fair hit. But the wrong end struck."

The _Dumont_ was sufficiently near the pier for the message to have
been shouted. But tests of new torpedoes are not to be shouted about.
Armitage discharged a white star from his pistol, the signal to come in
for the night, and walked toward the shops.

"You may turn in," he said to the men. "I have a good night's work,
alone, ahead of me."

"She should not have struck with her stern, sir," said a short, squat
man, hurrying to Armitage's side. He spoke with a strong accent and
passed as a Lithuanian. His expert knowledge of electricity as well as
his skill in making and mending apparatus had caused Armitage to
intrust him with much of the delicate work on the model, as well as on
the torpedo of regular size, based on the model, now in course of
construction.

His was a position of peculiar importance. As the blue-prints of the
invention, from which detailed plans were worked, passed into the
shops, they came into the hands of this man, who, thus, many times in
the course of the day had the working prints of the controlling
mechanism in his exclusive possession.

For some reason that he could not explain, all this shot through
Armitage's mind as the man spoke.

"No, Yeasky, it should not. But I 'll fix that. By the way, how
long--No matter, I shan't need you any more to-night, Yeasky."

As he entered the shop the storekeeper was leaving. He nodded to the
officer.

"What luck, Lieutenant Armitage?"

"Fair, the wrong end hit first. I think the regulation size would have
worked all right. At all events, I 'll study it out to-night."

He paused. Then as the storekeeper stepped past him he called him back.

"Mr. Jackson, I may be silly, but I 've been a bit worried of late.
You keep a close eye on the record of parts, don't you?"

"Yes, indeed, sir, I go over it every night."

"Do you ever actually go over the parts to see that they tally with the
records? What I mean is, important parts might be missing, although
the daily record might be so juggled as to