A WARNING
"Whew, how it rains!" exclaimed Ned, as he looked out of the window.
"And it doesn't seem to show any signs of letting up," remarked Tom."It's been at it nearly a week now, and it is likely to last a week longer.""It's beastly," declared his chum."How can you test your gun in this weather?""I can't.I've got to wait for it to clear.""Bless my rubber boots! it's just got to stop some time," declared Mr.Damon."Don't worry, Tom.""But I don't like this delay.I have heard that General Waller has perfected a new gun--and it's a fine one, from all accounts.He has the proving grounds at Sandy Hook to test his on, and I'm handicapped here.He may beat me out.""Oh, I hope not, Tom!" exclaimed Ned."I'm going to see what the weather reports say," and he went to hunt up a paper.
It was several weeks after the completion of Tom's giant cannon.In the meanwhile the gun had been moved by the steel company to a little- inhabited part of New York State, some miles from the plant.The gun had been mounted on an improvised carriage, and now Tom and his friends were waiting anxiously for a chance to try it.
The work was not complete, for the steel company employees had been hampered by the rain.Never before, it seemed, had there been so much water coming down from the clouds.Nearly every day was misty, with gradations from mere drizzles to heavy downpours.There were occasional clear stretches, however, and during them the men worked.
A few more days of clear weather would be needed before the gun could be fastened securely to the carriage, and then Tom could fire one of the great projectiles that had been cast for it.Not until then would he know whether or not his cannon was going to be a success.
Meanwhile nothing more had been heard or seen of the spy.Heappeared to have given up his attempts to steal Tom's secret, or to spoil his plans, if such was his object.
The place of the test, as I have said, was in a deserted spot.On one side of a great valley the gun was being set up.Its muzzle pointed up the valley, toward the side of a mountain, into which the gigantic projectile could plow its way without doing any damage.Tom was going to fire two kinds of cannon balls--a solid one, and one containing an explosive.
The gun was so mounted that the muzzle could be elevated or depressed, or swung from side to side.In this way the range could be varied.Tom estimated that the greatest possible range would be thirty miles.It could not be more than that, he decided, and he hoped it would not be much less.This extreme range could be attained by elevating the gun to exactly the proper pitch.Of course, any shorter range could, within certain limits, also be reached.
The gun was pointed slantingly up the valley, and there was ample room to attain the thirty-mile range without doing any damage.
At the head of the valley, some miles from where the giant cannon was mounted, was an immense dam, built recently by a water company for impounding a stream and furnishing a supply of drinking water for a distant city.At the other end of the valley was the thriving village of Preston.A railroad ran there, and it was to Preston station that Tom's big gun had been sent, to be transported afterward, on specially made trucks, drawn by powerful autos, to the place where it was now mounted.
Tom had been obliged to buy a piece of land on which to build the temporary carriage, and also contract for a large slice of the opposite mountain, as a target against which to fire his projectiles.
The valley, as I have said, was desolate.It was thickly wooded in spots, and in the centre, near the big dam, which held back the waters of an immense artificial lake, was a great hill, evidently a relic of some glacial epoch.This hill was a sort of division between two valleys.
Tom, Ned, Mr.Damon, with Koku, and some of the employees of the steel company, had hired a deserted farmhouse not far from the place where the gun was being mounted.In this they lived, while Tom directed operations.
