"If you will just fire me!" Danny begged, not a bit abashed.
The gunner was not at all willing that Danny's plight should be discovered by an officer, so he quickly went to Danny's assistance, and "fired" him by bodily pulling him out of the cannon.
"Thanks!" chirped the little joker, as he dropped to the ground. "Bink says that I'm a small-caliber projectile, but I was quite big enough for that cannon. Say, do you fire men every day?"
The gunner could not suppress a grin.
"Men? Well, you're likely to get fired, young feller, if you monkey round these guns!" he declared.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE MYSTERY CLEARED AWAY.
What news was obtainable at Sea Cove about Barney Mulloy was important, though somewhat unsatisfactory. Barney had been attacked by tramps and badly hurt, but not killed, though at first the report of his death had gone out. One of the tramps had been nearly killed in the fight, and Mulloy had disappeared.
"What became of him? Where did he go?" were Merriwell's questions.