Department will favor, and I want to get a line. Then, even if I
invent a cannon that will outshoot all the others, they may not
take mine. Though if they do, and buy a number of them, I'll be
more than repaid for my labor, besides having the satisfaction of
helping my country."

"Good for you, Tom! I wish it was time to go to Sandy Hook now.
I'm anxious to see that big gun. Do you know anything about it?"

"Not very much. I have heard that it is not quite as large as
the old sixteen-inch rifle that they had to throw away because of
some trouble, I don't know just what. It was impractical, in
spite of its size and great range. But this new gun they are
going to test is considerably smaller, I understand.

"It was invented by a General Wailer, and is, I think, about
twelve inches across at the muzzle. In spite of that
comparatively small size, it fires a projectile weighing a
thousand pounds, or half a ton, and takes five hundred pounds of
powder. Its range, of course, no one knows yet, though I have
heard it said that General Wailer claims it will shoot twenty
miles."

"Whew! Some shot!"

"I'm going to beat it," declared Tom, "and I want to do it
without making such a monstrous gun that it will be difficult to
cast it.

"You see, Ned, there is, theoretically, nothing to prevent the