Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

368 ‘“We skinned through by one _hair’s breadth, because—by the piper that played before Moses!” he ended in an utterly thunderstruck gasp. Girton was at his side; Girton, with the effort of his life, stifled a savage yell —hbecause there was cause ‘enough for several yells. Spread before them in the blaze of a hundred arc-lamps, stretching hundreds of feet away, the big shop lay revealed. Cranes were there of gigantic proportions, and from the nearest hung a length of steel, yards and yards in length, with the black circle of its muzzle toward them— a six-inch rifle! Near the opposite wall an endless line of black circles met their eyes, finished, unmounted field-guns of the seventy-five millimeter type! Yet the two giant lathes in the center cf the shop claimed all their attention after that first dumfounding minute; one of them was empty, the other, beyond human question, held a thing plainly im- possible in Guanama—a_ (fourteen-inch gun of the most modern type in process or manufacture. ‘* My Lord! My Lord!” muttered Gir- ton. ‘‘ And every darned bit of it must have been landed in sections and at night, end it must have taken months to—”’ ‘“‘ Careful! Who’s this?” whispered his old friend. “Is that some one coming around the corner of the building, or— yes! Here! Duck this way!”’ Even now the shadow of the newcomer fell plainly, out there in the yard, and he was moving swiftly as if to investigate their own particular nook. As one they crouched low and raced toward the far side of the alleged engine works’ prop- erty, the side that gave upon the shore of Puerto Carlo harbor. As one they slid to a standstill beside another of the little gates in the outer fence; and while sentries might be with- out, that figure behind carried a rifle and was still moving in their direction. He seemed uncertain still as to their pres- ence. He paused and looked about—and with his back turned to them for an THE ARGOSY. instant, Edward Hemmett pushed open the gate and stepped forth into the blacker night, with Girton at his heels. The gate they closed behind them with- out a creak. ‘The steps within did not follow to the gate. They were safely out and— ‘“ Halt, senor, or I shoot!’’ announced another of the night’s black figures, thrusting the muzzle of his rifle into Mr. Hemmett’s ribs! CHAPTER VI. ABOARD THE ALMIRANTA. "T HE silent, excited little laugh which had been upon Hemmett’s lips as the gate closed behind them turned to a small wheeze. Involuntarily almost he said: ‘Don’t touch him, Steve! me covered!” ‘‘ ]—I—had no idea of touching him!” Girton reported breathlessly from a point some five yards distant. ‘‘ His colleague has a rifle jammed into the pit of my stomach.” The sentries were talking, too, both at once, each apparently rebuking the other for not obeying orders and_ shooting down any person who came through the gate in either direction! Brief though the chatter, it gave Hem- mett and Girton time for some very painful thought. That they were done for seemed beyond question; no estab- lishment as large as the National Engine Works can keep its nature secret without very energetic measures; and doubtless cther investigative minds which had passed this way had ceased to be. It was outrageous, of course, and in- credible—but so was the whole plant, for that matter. Yes, and now the sentries had concluded that orders were orders, and the barrel against Hemmett’s ribs shook a little, and the click of a cocked hammer came to his ears. Edward Hemmett, in perhaps the tenth part of one second, gathered himself for He’s got comicloool C©