“And the ones that hadn’t gone out of shape were too hot anyway,” went on Hornblower. “I’m the damnedest fool God ever made. Mad as a hatter. Did you see how that gun went off? The men’ll be scared now and won’t lay their guns properly—too anxious to fire it off before the recoil catches them. God, I’m a careless son of a swab.”
“Easy, easy,” said Bush, a prey to conflicting emotions.
Hornblower pounding his left hand with his right fist as he upbraided himself was a comic sight; Bush could not help laughing at him. And Bush knew perfectly well that Hornblower had done excellently so far, really excellently, to have mastered at a moment’s notice so much of the technique of using redhot shot. Moreover, it must be confessed that Bush had experienced, during this expedition, more than one moment of pique at Hornblower’s invariable bold assumption of responsibility; and the pique may even have been roused by a stronger motive, jealousy at Hornblower’s good management—an unworthy motive, which Bush would disclaim with shocked surprise if he became aware of it. Yet it made the sight of Hornblower’s present discomfiture all the more amusing at the moment.
“Don’t take on so,” said Bush with a grin.
“But it makes me wild to be such a—”
Hornblower cut the sentence off short. Bush could actually see him calling up his selfcontrol and mastering himself, could see his annoyance at having been selfrevelatory, could see the mask of the stoical and experienced fighting man put back into place to conceal the furious passions within.
“Would you take charge here, sir?” he said; it might be another person speaking. “I’ll go and take a look at the furnace, if I may. They’ll have to go easy with those bellows.”
“Very good, Mr. Hornblower. Send the ammunition up and I’ll direct the fire on the schooner.”
“Aye aye, sir. I’ll send up the last shot to go into the furnace. They won’t be too hot yet, sir.”
Hornblower went darting down the ramp while Bush moved behind the guns to direct the fire. The fresh charges came up and were rammed home, the wet wads went in on top of the dry wads, and then the bearers began to arrive with the shot.