"She should not have struck with her stern, sir," said a short, squat man, hurrying to Armitage's side. He spoke with a strong accent and passed as a Lithuanian. His expert knowledge of electricity as well as his skill in making and mending apparatus had caused Armitage to intrust him with much of the delicate work on the model, as well as on the torpedo of regular size, based on the model, now in course of construction. His was a position of peculiar importance. As the blue-prints of the invention, from which detailed plans were worked, passed into the shops, they came into the hands of this man, who, thus, many times in the course of the day had the working prints of the controlling mechanism in his exclusive possession. For some reason that he could not explain, all this shot through Armitage's mind as the man spoke. "No, Yeasky, it should not. But I 'll fix that. By the way, how long--No matter, I shan't need you any more to-night, Yeasky." As he entered the shop the storekeeper was leaving. He nodded to the officer. "What luck, Lieutenant Armitage?" "Fair, the wrong end hit first. I think the regulation size would have worked all right. At all events, I 'll study it out to-night." He paused. Then as the storekeeper stepped past him he called him back. "Mr. Jackson, I may be silly, but I 've been a bit worried of late. You keep a close eye on the record of parts, don't you?" "Yes, indeed, sir, I go over it every night." "Do you ever actually go over the parts to see that they tally with the records? What I mean is, important parts might be missing, although the daily record might be so juggled as to make it appear they were not." "By George!" exclaimed the storekeeper, "I never have done that. I 'll begin to-morrow." "Thanks, I should if I were you. Good-night." Armitage passed into the shop and switched on an electric light over a long pine table in the centre of the apartment. Then he went to the safe, opened it, and returned to the table with an armful of rolled parchment and specifications. These he spread out and thereafter, while the night waned, he was lost to the world and its affairs. Briefly, Armitage had invented a torpedo, whose steering was so controlled by delicate magnetos, that while ordinarily proceeding in the line of aim, if such aim, through the movement of the vessel aimed at, or through some other cause, should result in a miss, the effect of the steel hull of the objective ship on the delicate magnetos of the Armitage torpedo would be such as to cause a change in the course of the deadly missile, and have her go directly toward the vessel and even follow her.