“That is so, but we shall all be in disguise, so that if we stumble over any of them in the dark we shall only be taken for some of their own fellows. We shall each carry hammers and spikes, and felt wads an inch thick, so that when we find the guns we shall be able to spike them without making any noise.”
“Do you know the mechanism of those Krupp guns?”
“No.”
“Well, then, you would only be going out on a foolʼs errand. You would not be able to spike them, and if you did, they would have no difficulty in cutting the spike off by taking the breech–block out. Your best plan would be to get the breech–blocks out and carry them away. They would probably be too heavy to carry far, but if you were to get them out and take them a short distance away, you might hide them among the ruins and cover them over with rubbish. That would effectually put them out of action until we go out and capture the place. Look here! have you got a pocket–book with you?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then, I can show you roughly the action of the gun and how to open the breech and get the block out. When you grasp that you will find no difficulty in doing it, if you coach the fellows who are going with you how it is done. You see the action would be quite noiseless, and though it would take you a good bit longer than spiking, that would not be very important if you find all the fellows asleep.”
“Thank you! I am very much obliged to you. It would have been a horrible sell to find, when we got there, that after all we could do nothing.”
They went together to the barricade and sat down in as comfortable a spot as they could find. Then the midshipman drew a plan of the breech action and explained minutely to Rex how it worked and how he should proceed to get out the wedge and stopper. In the evening, when the others came off duty, Rex brought them home, and, taking them up into his room, explained to them what was to be done. He knew that it was useless to attempt to get Ah Lo to understand it, but he would only have to put his hand on the part to be operated upon, and get Ah Lo to apply his strength to it.
“Even if we canʼt get out the breech–block, or find it too heavy to carry away, it would be sufficient, I should say, to take out the wedge and stopper, and carry them off, for I doubt whether they would be able to replace these parts, and at any rate they could only do so after several daysʼ delay, which would be a good deal gained.”