“Nothing,” Bill assured him. “She is sailing as smoothly as a swallow, and the lights ahead are steady.”
“Oh, ye have ’em sighted, have ye? Did ye try creepin’ up since night fell?”
“Yes,” said Bill. “But we are making our best speed, and the balloon ahead is doing its best too. We can tell that through the glass by the way she shivers.”
“Any sign of any other balloon?” asked O’Brien, rising and stretching himself.
“Not a sign!” said Hank.
“Well, what shootin’ irons have ye?” demanded O’Brien next. He glanced at the two revolvers held out to him. “Two dear little pill-boxes, those! Carry wan foot. See these?”
He opened a case and disclosed four of the new model revolvers that had just been perfected. The design was unique. Instead of the steel cartridge clip holding six cartridges as in the old style revolver, the new invention consisted of a light case at the base of the hand grip. This held a coil of cartridges fastened by aluminum clips to a light webbing. This had necessitated the rehanging and rebalancing of the whole revolver, but the perfected weapon proved to be a great improvement on the old gun, and almost “fired itself,” O’Brien explained. The small, round clip holder at the end of the grip was not at all in the way and was so light that it was not cumbersome. Counting the six cartridges that were strung in the grip and the ones lying in the coil, the revolvers held eighteen shots. Also a new explosive called “Marsden,” after its inventor, added a terrific force to the projectile. The barrels, longer than the squat model that had been so long in use, were octagonal.
O’Brien viewed them with pride.
“See me babies?” he purred. “The pretty pets! So neat and dainty and willin’! Willin’ is no name! I’m not sure you couldn’t nick that big sassy star over yonder, so be ye aimed straight. And I’m goin’ to trust you with one each. Don’t be afraid you can’t shoot straight after usin’ the old model, because ye can. These are hung exactly like the ould guns on that account. The man who invented ’em had a grain of sense. He saw no reason why everybody in the world should have to learn his shootin’ all over again, so he balanced this new barrel and modelled the clutch so they would hang the same. All the difference is it’s simply a new gun from stem to stern, and Marsden is a great felly himself. They do tell of him that when he was tryin’ out his new explosive that he planted enough to go on a tin cent piece down a well, and sat a fuse, and now ’tis a bottomless pool with thousands payin’ a nickel to just peek over the edge. It is sure wonderful. And no noise! It is going to make scraps like the one I think is ahead both noiseless and orderly.”
“Well, I should say these are beauties,” exclaimed Hank, bending over the case with respectful tenderness. “Beauties; no less!”