Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-20

Steadiness, Stared Through the Tsls-
scope.
and he should loose the charge, but If
he did not fire while the buzzer still
was sounding the turret must wait In
struction from the tops again-the
sights must be altered, the gun aimed
again, that chance for dealing destruc-
ton BIO gone.
"Bzzzzzz!' the buzzezr was still go
ing, but 1t would not go forever. Had
it not been going for-minutes nowf
Bob Wendell jerked, stiff and strained,
toward the firing pointer. He tried to
speak, but he could not till he wet his
lips; then as he saw the pointers face
the rebuke stayed on his tongue. The
gun pointers face "a drawn as In
agony, his arms strained and stretched
as In torture, his lips moved ceaseless-
~, soundlessly, and his fingers played
with the firing key as q surgeons taxi
ing up a scalpel The mans eyes,
CLASSY In their steadiness, stared
through the telescope. Too much Of
the sky was In the field OF sight, but
now the deck was dropping again and
the buzzer still was sounding. The
firing pointers fingers pressed togeth-
er, and the monster bulk Of steel be-
side him leaped back In recoil, while
the air before the turret was yellow
and etherous with blazing gas and the
ship shuddered at the shock of the dis
charge.
The firing pointer, falling back as
the doors from the handling room
opened again and the car came up for
the reload, gazed coward Wendell.
Bob, counting the score Of seconds
during which the shell would be In
flight. said to himself, Eight, nine"
Then, aloud, THAT was right. LOuden;
fire when you're on The target!" He
saw that the gun was reloaded and
from his station gazed through his
periscope out over the sea.
If he missed-he and the firing point
er and the turret trainer. the sight
settlers and the rest, the captain on
the bridge, Garry and his men in the
top, the executive officer in the chief
fire control station, the engineers and
all the others throughout the ship who
lived then only to send shells true and
straight from the guns-if they all
missed, a squirt Of spray would show
somewhere ten miles away. If the
shell hit, nothing would ~appear-that
was, nothing would show right away.
A little later the target ship might
show a list or a fire might break out.
But In any case Wendell and the crew
In tho f1Irrnk nhn ho6 nninfod and 6rQd
the gun could scarcely hope to. see It
Only Garry and his spoilers in the tops
would surely see 1t. Perhaps the cap
tain and the officers In the coming
tower might see, but word would come
to the turret as an instruction for a
correction for the guns If 1t was q
miss, or If 1t was a hit, mo changed"
Down five hundred. One right!'
That meant a miss, of course. The
shell had gone over and splashed In
the water. Garry had seen the splash
and estimated the miss at five hundred
yards. Zone right" That meant that
the shell had flown to the stern also.
The original estimate had not allowed
enough detection for the speed Of the
Arizona and the relative speed Of the
tunnels and masts out there ten miles
away But the shell at least had gone
over. 1t had not fallen short. A sec
ond shot already was testing the new
range. up three hundredr'
The range was now "bracketed." A
shot at 10000 yards had gone over.
Another at 1880 had fallen short. The
right range was between. The sight
setter for the gun which had fred al
ready had altered his sight again. The
firing pointer crouched and strained.
The buzzer on his breast sounded. The
gun leaped back.