"Yes, sir, quite clearly. They're about to fire a shot from a big gun in a wood. There it goes!"
The deep note of the cannon came to them, passed on, and then rolled back in echoes like a threat.
Appendix: Transcription notes:
The following modifications were applied while transcribing the printed book to etext:
Chapter 1
Page 6, para 1, change "criticise" to "criticize", for consistency
Page 20, para 6, fix typo, "calvaryman"
Page 21, para 8, change "things" to "thing"
Chapter 2
Page 35, para 2, add missing hyphen in "commander-in-chief"
Chapter 3
Page 48, para 1, change "where-ever" to "wherever"
Page 49, para 2, fix typo, period should be comma
Page 49, para 2, change "gaints" to "giants", which is my best guess
as to what it should be
Chapter 4
Page 74, para 7, add missing period
Chapter 7
Page 124, para 6, fix typo "qouth"
Page 132, para 14, "Pleasonton" should be "Pleasanton"
Chapter 10
Page 182, para 5, add missing close-quotes