The lanyard was pulled.
Instantly there followed a spurt of gleaming flame and a nerve-racking report which made the earth tremble; and as the great gun recoiled from the shock a thick cloud of smoke rolled upward and spread out among the trees.
Although prepared for the concussion, Don Hale felt almost as though his ear-drums had been burst by its terrific force.
But he almost forgot that an instant later, in his eagerness to watch the crew at work, for the breech of the gun was open ready for another projectile.
About sixteen seconds after the first shot had been fired another left the muzzle, and then came a series, the terrific crashes and reverberations following one another so fast that Don Hale found the strain almost too severe to stand. He gave a sigh of relief when, after fourteen high-explosive shells had been hurled into the enemy's line, the red bursts of flame and clouds of smoke abruptly ceased, and the destroying monster, after its last recoil, sank back motionless into place.
"That means the demolition of a portion of a German front-line trench," exclaimed Lieutenant D'Arraing. "Ah! another weapon is taking up the refrain."
Somewhere in the forest, not so very far away, the boom of a second big gun was heard; and this kept steadily firing until fifteen more shells had been sent toward the east, then a third went into action.
"Whew! It would take some time for a chap to get used to all that awful racket," gasped Don.
"Will my head ever stop aching!" murmured Dunstan.
"Pretty hard, I know, when one is not accustomed to it," put in Lieutenant D'Arraing, with a smile. "Now we shall have to look. When a man hits another he is apt to get a blow in return."