"I do indeed, Mr. Drake," replied Commander Shaw, smiling with interest at Robert's eagerness. "What have you been doing?"
"I will show you, sir. Will you please come over to the starboard six-pounder gun?"
Robert stepped quickly to the starboard side, followed by the commander. He then quickly unscrewed the regular gun sights, drew them out of the sockets, and threw them over to Chief Gunner's Mate Lenn. The latter handed Robert a long parcel wrapped in paper.
"Hello, Bob, what have you there, a new gun?" laughed Blair. "Say, fellows, let's see what Bob is up to." Everybody became interested and crowded about, and many were the laughing remarks made to Robert. But the latter, paying no attention to these, quickly stripped the paper from the parcel, and a long brass pipe was exposed to the curious eyes about him. On one end of the pipe was clamped a piece of metal which carried a circular ring, across which were attached, at right angles, thin silvery-white wires. At the other end of the pipe was attached a small brass cylinder, closed except for a minute hole through its centre. Near the cross wire end, hanging from the pipe, was a solid plug, cylindrical in section.
Robert worked rapidly. He slipped this plug into the recess left by the front sight, putting in several thin washers; at the rear end of the brass pipe was attached a condemned rear sight, one furnished by Lenn, and this naturally slipped into its place.
"By George, Mr. Drake," cried out Commander Shaw, "this is splendid. It's the Paul Jones' bar sight! She won this year's six-pounder record by that sight—I only yesterday received a drawing of it—how in the world did you get this up?"
"Several helped, sir, and Chief Gunner's Mate Lenn did all the work about it. May I use these sights, sir, on my target practice to-day?"
"Indeed you may, and all of the rest of the gun crews will. We've known for some time the old sights were very poor. I'm delighted, Mr. Drake."
Robert's face was radiant with happiness. His classmates crowded about him; everybody saw at a glance that Robert's sight was a decided improvement.
"I congratulate you, Bob," said Blair to him. "I guess you've got the flag and you deserve to have it; this is just fine. Captain Shaw," continued Blair, "I request permission to fire my shots with the old sights."