'I was unaware of it myself till yesterday,' he said, stooping to enter. 'I could never understand why this boat was a little down by the head, but when we took out that damaged plank, I saw quickly enough. There is a false bulkhead forward of the cabin, and behind that a machine gun mounted on a vertical slide built into the hull. When you take away the deck planking above it the thing can be raised to fire over the bows. I give you my word, the whole contrivance is highly ingenious. When I discovered that we had such a treasure I at once set about getting it in working order. That is what kept me so late in the yard last night. The bearing parts were somewhat rusty, but they worked again with persuasion and grease. All that then remained was to find ammunition--a problem which at first seemed formidable enough. But there again my incomparable luck was with me. I have had a good deal to do with revolutionary activities in this country at one time and another, for the subject is one which interests me. I happened to know that one of my former acquaintances, to whom I had been of service, was now skulking in Hankow, awaiting the next chance to gratify his life-long ambition of overthrowing the Manchu Dynasty. That man's vocation as a rebel conspirator obliges him to deal in such things as maxims and ammunition for the same, and if there were any contraband stocks in Hankow, he would know where they were. At any rate, now that I had found the gun, the opportunity to secure some was too good to be missed, and was worth even taking a certain risk for. Things turned out better than I had hoped. He had ammunition in his own den, and on my paying a liberal contribution to the "cause" he brought himself to part with two belts--though in point of fact I imagine he anticipated his quarters were to be raided in the near future and was rather glad to get rid of the damning evidence. I knew well enough without taking measurements that the ammunition would fit our gun.' 'How did you know that?'