"Put in a heavy charge!" cried Captain
Needam. "We'll need lots of powder to get the shot aboard in the teeth of this wind!"
Several men grouped about the brass cannon and rapidly loaded the weapon. Then, instead of a cannon ball, they put in a long, solid piece of iron, shaped like the modern shell, with a pointed nose. To this projectile was attached a long, thin, but very strong line.
"Are they going to fire that at the ship?" asked Larry, who was not very familiar with nautical matters.
"They hope to have it land right on deck, or carry the line over," said Bailey, who paused in his work of helping the men to lay out from the wagon parts of the apparatus.
Larry watched intently. Now and then he gazed out to the ship, a speck of black amid white foam, for the seas were breaking over her.
At the side of the cannon was a box, containing the line, one end of which was fastened to the projectile. The rope was coiled in a peculiar cris-cross manner, to prevent it being tangled as it paid rapidly out when the shot was fired.
"All ready?" called Captain Needam, as he looked at his men.
"Ready, sir," answered George Tucker.
"Put in the primer!" ordered the chief of the life savers. One of the men inserted a percussion fuse in the touchhole of the mortar. The captain grasped a lanyard. The men all stood at attention, waiting to see the effect of the shot.