The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-05

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 destrs.c- tiOn be gone.
 ''Bzzzz.z.' the buzzezr was still go-. ing, but it would not go forever. Had it not been going for-tninutes now? Bob Wendell jerlsed, stiff and strained, toward tho firing pointer. He tried to speak, but he could not till he wet his lips; then as he saw the pointers face gun pointers facd was drawn as in agony, his arms stfained and stretched as fin torture, his lips moved ceaseless- ly, soundlessly, and his fingers played with the firing key as surgeons talk ing up scairel The mans eyes, glassy. in their stea4iness, 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-
  side him leaped back in recoil, while the air before the turret was yellow and etherotls with blazing gas and the ship shudfered at the shock of the dis 1 charge. t
 The firing pointer, falling bach as i the doors from the handling room | opened again and the car came up for l the reload, gazed toward Wendell. Bob, counting the score of seconds during which the shell would be in flight, said to himself, Flight, nine." Then, aloud, "That was right, Louden; !, fire when you're on the targetv' He | saw that the gun was reloaded and from his. station gazed through his periscope put over the sea.
 | If he missed-he and the firing point CT and the turret trainer, the sight I 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 1 all the others throughout the ship who lived then only to send shells true and straight from the guns-if they all l l 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 l show list or fire might break out But in any case Wendell and the crew in the turret who had pointed and fired the gun could scarcely hope to see it. Only Garry and his spotters in the tops would surely see it. Perhaps the cap tower might see, but word would come to the turret as an instruction for a correction for the. guns if it was a miss, or if it was a hit, 'No changer
 Down five hundred. One rightr That meant miss, of course. The shell had gore over and splashed in the water Garry had seen the splash and estimated the miss at five hundred yards. "One rightv' That meant that the shell had flown to the stern also The original estimate had not allowed enough defection for the speed of the Arizona and the relative speed of the tunnels and masts out there ten miles I away. But the shell at least had gone over. It had not fallen short. A sec ond shot already was testing the new range. "Up three hundred!'
 The range was now "bracketed." shot at 19,OO0 yards had gone over Another at 18,5OO had fallen short The right range was between. The sigh1 setter for the gun which had fired al ready had altered his sight again. The firing pointer crouched and strained
 The buzzer on his breast sounded. Int
 gun leaped back.