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Blank Cartridges | Ian Hay | |
Shooting Straight |
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Page 7 of 12 |
Meanwhile the captain is superintending firing arrangements. "Are the first details ready to begin?" he shouts. "Quite ready, sir," runs the reply down the firing line. The Captain now comes to the telephone himself. He takes the receiver from Cockerell with masterful assurance. "Hallo, there!" he calls. "I want to speak to Captain Wagstaffe." "Honkle yang-yang?" inquires a ghostly voice. "Captain Wagstaffe! Hurry up!" Presently the bell rings, and the Captain gets to business. "That you, Wagstaffe?" he inquires cheerily. "Look here, we're going to fire Practice Seven, Table B,--snap-shooting. I want you to raise all the targets for six seconds, just for sighting purposes. Do you understand?" Here the bell rings continuously for ten seconds. Nothing daunted, the Captain tries again. "That you, Wagstaffe? Practice Seven, Table B!" "T'chk, t'chk!" replies Captain Wagstaffe. "Begin by raising all the targets for six seconds. Then raise them six times for five seconds each.--no, as you were! Raise them five times for six seconds each. Got that? I say, are you there? What's that?" "Przemysl" replies the telephone--or something to that effect. "Czestochowa! Krsyszkowice! Plock!" The Captain, now on his mettle, continues:-- "I want you to signal the results on the rear targets as the front ones go down. After that we will fire--oh, curse the thing!" He hastily removes the receiver, which is emitting sounds suggestive of the buckling of biscuit-tins, from his ear, and lays it on its rest. The bell promptly begins to ring again. "Mr. Cockerell," he says resignedly, "double up to the butts and ask Captain Wagstaffe--" |
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The First Hundred Thousand Ian Hay |
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