Finally they came to the testing room, and this proved, if possible, even more interesting than what had gone before. The foreman showed them the various ranges, and some of the penetrating feats of which the rifles were capable. It was almost unbelievable. "See this little toy?" he said, picking out a beautifully made gun from a rack on the wall. "The projectile discharged from this arm will penetrate over forty-five planks, each one seven-eighths of an inch thick. And then, look at this,"--holding up an ax-head with three clean holes bored through it--"here's what it can do to tempered steel. I don't think it would be very healthy to stand in its way." "No, I guess it wouldn't," said Dick. "I'd prefer to be somewhere else when one of those bullets was wandering around loose." Mr. Sawkins then showed them some photographs of bullets taken while in flight. At first sight this seems an impossibility, but nevertheless it is an accomplished fact. The method used is much the same as John Bennett has described in the early part of this chapter. As the bullet leaves the gun it cuts a wire, which in turn snaps the shutter of a very high-speed camera. The lenses on a camera of this kind are very expensive, a single lens sometimes costing five hundred dollars. Then the foreman showed them the apparatus that they had rigged up to test the speed of Bert's pitching. After examining the ingenious arrangement the boys were lavish in their praise. Mr. Sawkins made light of this, but it was easy to see that he was pleased. "Oh, it's nothing much," he said. "I just fooled around a little bit, and soon had this planned out. It was easy for me, because when I was a little younger I used to do a little myself in the pitching line on our local team, so I knew about what would be required." While they were discussing this, Mr. Bennett strolled in, and asked the enthusiastic group what they thought of what they had seen so far. "Gee," said Tom, impulsively, "it certainly is the greatest ever, Mr. Bennett. I never had any idea there was such an awful lot to know about gun-making. On thinking it over," he added, laughing, "I don't think of a single way that we could improve matters; do you, fellows?" "You are more modest than my son, then," said Mr. Bennett, and there was a twinkle in his eye as he spoke. "Every time John comes here he has a lot of ideas that he is sure will better anything we have here at present. However, I have just been in this line for the last thirty years or so, and so, of course, have lots to learn." "Aw, cut it out, Dad," grumbled the younger Bennett. "As far as I can find out, you've never tried any of the things I've proposed, and so how do you know how good or bad they are?" "Well, the only objection to your plans was that they would generally have meant building a new factory to carry them out. Otherwise I have no fault to find with them," returned Mr. Bennett.