Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/82

70 'Getting hot,' remarked someone; 'but it is not full speed yet.'

Alec passed on, and then came to the fifth deck, where all the air-tight doors had been slid back to allow free passage from compartment to compartment. From one end of the deck to the other the gleaming breeches of the great guns, with their loading and sighting apparatus, could be seen in endless perspective, while the gunners were drawing them back so that the muzzles should not be damaged by any chance meteorites.

'Well, Howard,' said Alec, as he approached a stalwart man who was standing by a huge cannon, 'how is the Infant? Likes the voyage?'

'Ay, ay, sir,' replied the man fondly, patting the great breech of the gun. 'Depend upon it, sir, he'll wake 'em up when he sends a few of his nuts into their ships. Why, they'll go through their sides like cardboard.'

The men went on working for some