"Taken it to pieces - as you see."

"Pray, what for? I thought something was the matter."

"Nothing was the matter, I am glad to know," Thorold said
looking at me. "It is sometimes necessary to do this sort of
thing in a hurry; and the only way to do it then in a hurry,
is to practise now when there is no hurry. You shall see how
little time it will take to get ready for another order to
fire. But Miss Randolph had better be out of the way first.
Are you going farther?"

The major said he hoped so, and I answered certainly.

"I shall fire no more while you are here," Thorold said as he
touched his cap, and he gallopped back to his place. He sat
like a rock; it was something pretty to see. Then came an
order, which I could not distinguish; and in an incredibly
short time wheels were geared, guns were mounted, and the
dismantled condition of everything replaced by the most alert
order. The major said it was done very well, and told me how
quick it could be done; I forget, but I think he said in much
less than a minute; and then I know he wanted to move; but I
could not. I held my place still, and the battery manoeuvred
up and down the ground in all manner of directions, forming in
various forms of battery; which little by little I got the
major partially to explain. He was not very fluent; and I did
not like his explanations; but nevertheless it was necessary
to give him something to do, and I kept him busy, while the
long line of artillery wagons rushed over the ground, and