"Let's go aboard the 'Nevada'; she's alongside the 'Santee' wharf, and we'll talk to the captain. I know him, and we'll ask him to let us fit up the six-pounder we're going to use. There's a gunner's mate named Lenn aboard that ship who is a great friend of mine; he's awfully handy with tools, and he'll help me."
"But, Bob, a captain isn't going to let a midshipman monkey with the guns of his ship."
"The 'Nevada' is in reserve with a crew of only thirty-five men on board; she's here for the instruction of midshipmen, and besides, we're not going to make any permanent change; we're going to invent a new six-pounder gun sight; we'll just take off the old sights and put in our own peep-sights; the captain can put the other ones back if he wants to."
"You talk as if you had already invented your peep-sights and all you had to do was to put them on. Now let me tell you, Bob, it isn't so all-fired easy. This gun isn't fitted for peep-sights. Another thing, the rear sight is attached here to a graduated bar; it moves up and down according to the distance of the target you are firing at, and it also moves from side to side, to allow for the speed of the ship. Now you're going to have a good deal of trouble to arrange an entire new kind of sights for this gun."
"Pete, those are problems that I'm sure can be solved. I don't pretend to say I know just how we can make the change, but I'm going to study the question, and I'm going to get expert help. Now let's go over to the 'Nevada' and talk with Captain Brice; we've got to get his consent first; and then I'll get that smart gunner's mate, Lenn, to help me; he's a very inventive chap. Come along."
Before long the two midshipmen were aboard the monitor "Nevada" and were talking with Captain Brice. At first the latter was utterly opposed to any "monkeying," as he expressed it, with one of his guns. Finally he became interested in Robert's earnestness, and relented to the extent of the following ultimatum:
"Now, Mr. Drake, I'll allow you to remove the present sights of one of my six-pounders; the sights are kept out of the gun, anyway, for that matter; and in their places you may put in new sights. But you are not to alter the gun in any way; you must fix it so that any sights you put in can be immediately replaced by the regular sights. I'll send for the man you want, Lenn, and tell him to give you a hand."
Chief Gunner's Mate Lenn soon appeared, and he and the two midshipmen repaired to the forward starboard six-pounder on the superstructure deck, where Robert explained what he wanted. Lenn grasped the idea with avidity.
"Why, Mr. Drake," he said, "we can fix up what you want with no trouble at all. A sight is a simple thing—the principle is that the centre line of the gun's bore must be exactly parallel to the line of sight at point-blank range with no speed allowance. Now you want a peep-sight. We'll get a hollow cylinder, say an inch in diameter, and an inch or two long; we'll plug the end and drill a fine hole in the end of your plug. There's the peep. And the forward sight will be a ring with cross wires in it. Now your line from the peep-hole to the cross wires must be parallel to the axis of the gun. And while I think of it the rear and front sights should be as far apart as possible; I'll tell you what we'll do; we'll carry the sight at the end of a long piece of brass pipe; I've just the stuff in my storeroom. I'll fit a Y piece to where the present front sight is, pivot it there and hang the forward part of the pipe in its gimbals. I'll just run a quarter-inch pin through the pipe; and I'll drop the rear end of the brass pipe on this rear sight—I'll have to make a slight alteration in this rear sight——"
"You can't change a thing, Lenn, you mustn't," interrupted Robert. "Captain Brice will not allow any changes of the gun——"