"One—two—nine—five—o," he spoke into his navyphone.
"What range are the guns showing?" asked the trumpet. It was the Gunnery-Lieutenant, anxious to know, at the last moment, whether all the instruments were recording properly.
This meant ringing up each gun, and took time. Presently all the replies were received.
"Y3 shows One—two—nine—o—o, sir," Uncle Podger telephoned. "The others are correct."
"Confound Y3!" he heard the Gunnery-Lieutenant say angrily.
Then the figures in the slits in the brass boxes began to move—the "five" gave way to "o", the "nine" disappeared and "eight" took its place; the range was decreasing. The little labels bearing the types of shell to be used—armour-piercing, common, lyddite—revolved, and came to a standstill with "common" showing.
All these changes down in the transmitting-room repeated themselves in similar instruments at the different guns, but to make doubly sure that they were correctly known there, the order "Common shell" was also passed by telephone. "Tell B1 to stand by to fire," bawled the big trumpet, and the Lamp-post calmly passed on the order.
"Fire!" yelled the trumpet mouth. The Lamp-post pressed the key which rang the fire-gong in B1 casemate. There was a dull thud from above, and B1 had fired.
Then orders came down one after the other; the whole battery began firing. The two turrets started, the fore-turret gun making the transmitting-room rattle, whilst the after 9.2 only made it wriggle.
The Padre was busy jotting down times and ranges, the ship's corporal was helping the Lamp-post with his instruments, and Uncle Podger was taking in and passing orders to them all. They had no time to think of what was going on elsewhere.