“Hullo! What’s that?”
Tom set down his paint pot and listened intently. Jack crawled out from under the bottom of the Wondership which he had been coating with an extra application of waterproof bronze.
“Sounded like a gun,” he said after a second.
“It did, for a fact. Jove! Hark at the wind.”
As he spoke a gust shook the rather lightly-built shed.
“Must have come on a bit rough while we were at work,” commented Jack. “I hope it isn’t too squally for our trial trip.”
Whatever Tom might have responded to this speech will never be known, for at that instant came another report.
“B-o-o-m!” The echoes came dully shoreward, borne on a flaw of squally wind.
“It is a gun,” cried Tom, “but what in the world——”
“Let’s duck out and see. Hurry up!”