Among them are big guns--cannon that can shoot a long distance--
for if a foreign nation should send some of their new
dreadnaughts over here--vessels with guns that can shoot many
miles--where would the canal be once a bombardment was opened? It
would be ruined in a day--the immense lock-gates would be
destroyed. And, not only from the guns aboard ships would there
be danger, but from siege cannon planted in Costa Rica, or some
South American country below the canal zone.

"Now, to protect the canal against such an attack we need guns
that can shoot farther, straighter and more powerfully than any
at present in use, and we've got to have the most powerful
explosive. In other words, we've got to beat the biggest guns
that are now in existence. And I'm going to do it, Ned!"

"You are?"

"Yes, I'm going to invent a cannon that will make the longest
shots on record. I'm going to make a world-beater gun; or,
rather, I'm going to invent it, and have it made, for I guess it
would tax this place to the limit.

"I've been thinking of this for some time, Ned. I've been
puttering around inventing new magnetos, potato-parers and the
like, but this is my latest hobby. The Panama Canal is a big
thing--one of the biggest things in the world. We need the
biggest guns in the world to protect it.

"And, listen: Uncle Sam thinks the same way. I understand that
the best men in the service--at West Point, Annapolis and Sandy