“‘He said seventeen,’ growled Sir John Pendergest, in a voice that seemed to come out of a sepulchre. “‘Who sighted the gun?’ “‘I did, sir.’ “‘Why did not the regular gunner do that?’ “‘He did, sir, but I also took observations, and raised the muzzle .000327 of an inch.’ “‘Was your gunner inaccurate, then, to that extent?’ “‘No, sir, but I had weighed the ammunition, and found it short by two ounces and thirty-seven grains.’ “I must not bore you with all the questions and answers. I merely give these as samples. They questioned me about the recoil, the action of the gun, the state of this, that and the other after firing, and luckily I was able to answer to a dot every query put to me. At the finish one of the judges asked me to give in my own words my opinion of the gun. Admiral Sir John glared at him as he put this question, for of course to any expert the answers I had furnished, all taken together, gave an accurate verdict on the gun, assuming my statements to have been correct, which I maintain they were. However, as Sir John made no verbal comment, I offered my opinion as tersely as I could. “‘Thank you, Lieutenant Drummond,’ rumbled Sir John in his deep voice, as if he were pronouncing sentence, and, my testimony completed, the Committee rose. “I was out in the street before Billy Richardson overtook me, and then he called himself to my attention by a resounding slap on the shoulder. “‘Alan, my boy,’ he cried, ‘you have done yourself proud. Your fortune’s made.’ “‘As how?’ I asked, shaking him by the hand. “‘Why, we’ve been for weeks holding an inquiry on this blessed gun, and the question is whether or not a lot more of them are to be made. You know what an opinionated beast Old Grouch is. Well, my boy, you have corroborated his opinion of the gun in every detail. He is such a brow-beating, tyrannical brute that the rest of the Committee would rather like to go against him if they dared, but you have put a spoke in their wheel. Why, Sir John never said “thank you” to a human being since he was born until twenty-seven minutes and fifteen seconds after eleven this morning, as you would have put it,’ and at the time of writing this letter this surmise of Billy’s appears to be justified, for the tape in the club just now announced that the Committee has unanimously decided in favor of the gun, and adds that this is regarded as a triumph for the chairman, Admiral Sir John Pendergest, with various letters after his name.