cannon and a
small bag of powder which he purchased for the purpose.

Teddy, of course, was taken into his confidence, the artillery
experiments being planned for his especial delectation; so, coming up to
the house just about noon on the day of the royal anniversary, when he
was able to get away from the station for an hour, leaving his mate
Grigson in charge, he set about loading the ordnance and getting ready
for the salute, with a train laid over the touch-holes of the cannon to
set light to the moment it was twelve o'clock, according to the
established etiquette in the navy, a box of matches being placed handy
for the purpose.

As ill luck would have it, though, some few minutes before the proper
time, Mary, who was trying to sling a clothes-line in the back garden,
called Jupp to her assistance, and he being her attentive squire on all
occasions, and an assiduous cavalier of dames, hastened to help her,
leaving Teddy in charge of the loaded cannon, the gunpowder train, and
lastly, though by no means least, the box of matches.

The result can readily be foreseen.

Hardly had Jupp reached Mary's side and proceeded to hoist the
obstreperous clothes-line, when "Bang! bang!" came the reports of
distant cannonading on the front lawn, followed by an appalling yell
from the little girls, who from the safe point of vantage of the
drawing-room windows were looking on at the preparations of war.

To rush back through the side gate round to the front was but the work
of an instant with Jupp, and, followed by Mary, he was almost as quickly
on the spot as the sound of the explosion had been heard.

He thought that Master Teddy had only prematurely discharged the cannon,
and that was all; but when he reached the lawn what was his
consternation to observe a thick black cloud of smoke hanging in the
air, much greater than could possibly have been produced by the little
toy cannon being fired off, while Teddy, the cause of all the mischief,
was nowhere to be seen at all!

CHAPTER SIX.

THE POND IN THE MEADOW.

Not a trace of the boy could be seen anywhere.

The cause of the explosion was apparent enough; for, the little wooden
box on which Jupp had mounted the toy cannons, lashing them down firmly,
and securing them with breechings in sailor-fashion, to prevent their
kicking when fired, had been overturned, and a jug that he had brought
out from the house containing water to damp the fuse with, was smashed
to atom