Wet or dry; yo-ho!
And we—— ’”
“That will do, Silas,” broke in Mr. Dancer, “take Jupe and bring that ammunition at once.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” declared Silas in what he would have called “man-o’-war fashion.”
“Come on, you black imp of Satan,” he concluded to Jupe; “let’s get some pills fer that gun.”
“Pills!” cried Jupe. “Fo’ de lan’s sake, Marse Silas, sah! We got stuck on de bottom ob de sea and you talks ‘bout givin’ de gun medicine! I resigns mah commission as chief cook and bottle washah ob dis yar packet jes’ as soon as we gits asho’—ef we ebber do.”
“And if not?” Tom teased him.
“Wa’al, sah, den I ’signs it anyhow.”
A few minutes later Silas and Jupe had brought the ammunition for the submarine gun from the steel-walled magazine in which it was kept. Naturally, steam being the driving power for the projectile, there was no powder necessary. In fact, the explosive bullet used looked much like the missile hurled from a four-inch, quick-firing gun.
It was highly polished, and at its extremity had a sort of mushroom-shaped tip. This was the “bow,” so to speak, of this submarine death craft. It was made broad so that it was not likely to miss anything at which it was aimed. The idea of the projectile was that as soon as it struck an object the mushroom-shaped tip drove down on a mercurial cap, which exploded the charge of high explosive when it detonated.