"Be at my house by half-past one," repeated the commandant, dismissing Harry, and the latter left. He took several deep breaths when out of the commandant's office. "By George," he said, almost aloud, in tones of great relief, "I feared I was up against it. I was never so scared in all my life." CHAPTER XII ROBERT MAKES A DISCOVERY "Pete," said Robert a few days later, "let's go to the gun shed." "All right," replied the amiable Peters, "come along; but what are we to do there? I don't know of any more uninteresting place in the whole Academy." "You know that our company is going to try hard to win the flag, don't you?" "Of course we are. And so is every other company. Don't think for a minute, Bob, that you're the only cadet lieutenant who has picked out the girl who's going to present it. But what has the gun shed to do with our company winning the flag?" "It all counts, Pete; you know part of the grand multiple each company makes is made up of its record at target practice with six-pounder guns, don't you?" "Of course." "Well, I received a letter from Stanton last week; he says the sights of this gun are very poor. Now in our gunnery sections we were all encouraged to make improvements. You see gunnery in the navy is now a matter of terrific competition; it is ship against ship and gun against gun. At each target practice the ship that does the best carries the gunnery trophy for a year, and big money prizes are won by the best gun crews. And officers in command of different guns are encouraged to make improvements. Why, just before the Spanish war the twelve-inch guns of the 'Texas' could only shoot once in five minutes, and then the shots didn't hit often. On her last target practice those same guns fired once a minute and hit the target almost every time. And the improvements were all made by officers aboard the ship." "Well, Bob, here is your six-pounder gun; just take a look at it. I don't imagine you will be allowed to do much tinkering with it. You don't know a great deal about the gun--not nearly so much as the men who designed and built it--and here you are talking about improving it. You would probably injure rather than improve it." "I know how to work it, anyway, and I have fired a six-pounder a number of times," replied Robert, rapidly throwing down a couple of clamps, and turning the gun on its pivot. "I have no notion of touching the mechanism of the gun; but Stanton says the gun sights are poor; that anybody could put better sights on the gun." Robert now put himself at the rear of the gun, assuming the prescribed position of the man who fired it, holding it securely by the shoulder and hand of his right arm, his left hand being at the trigger. He ran his eye over the gun sights, and moved the gun up and down, and from side to side.