"Are they, sir? I can't see. My eyes are not so young as yours. Well, we're quite ready; and if you orders, we're going to give it 'em in earnest." "Go on, then," said Roy, "and see if you can't stop their firing." Ben smiled grimly, and bent down to regulate the aim he took, while the same was done with the other gun. The result was that the corporal's shot went right through the embrasure of the piece to the left, while Ben's went over. As the smoke cleared away, a scene of confusion was visible; but the gun on the right was fired directly after, and the shot plunged into the bank of earth raised the previous night. "Ah!" grumbled Ben; "you've got the best gun, my lad; there must be a twist in mine, for she throws high." "Like to change?" said the corporal. "No. I'm going to get used to mine and make her work better." Shot after shot was fired from the gate tower, the men warming to their work, and the results were very varied; for, in spite of the care exercised and the rivalry between Ben and the corporal, the clumsily cast balls varied greatly in their courses, so that at the end of an hour's firing very little mischief was done on either side. The enemy had had their earthen parapet a good deal knocked about, and some men had been injured; but all the advantage they had obtained was the battering down of some scraps of stone, which lay about the front of the great gate-way. "Soon clear that away with a broom," growled Ben; "but I'm a bit disappointed over these guns, captain. We ought from up here to have knocked theirs off the carriages by this time." "We shall do it yet," said Roy; and during the next few shots he himself laid the guns, taking the most careful aim. "As I said afore, your eyes are younger and better than mine, Master Roy, but you don't shoot any more true.--Hullo! what are they doing there?" He looked earnestly at the battery, where the men seemed to be extra busy, and at a solid mass of troops marching on from some hundreds of yards behind, straight for the castle. "They're never mad enough to come and deliver an assault; are they, corp'ral?" cried Ben, excitedly. "Seems like it, sergeant." Ben turned to Roy with an inquiring look, and he nodded. "Do what you think best," he said. What Ben thought best was to withdraw the great wedge which depressed the muzzle of his gun, the corporal doing the same; and then, after a careful aim-taking, both pieces roared out a salute to the coming infantry, which was marching forward in steady array. The balls went skipping along after striking the ground a hundred yards or so beyond the enemy's battery, and, ricochetting, darted right for the solid moving mass of men. The effect was ludicrous, for in an instant they could be seen from the tower to be in a terrible state of confusion, breaking and running in all directions, and, as it were, melting away.