ariety of their contents; a street whose pavements were thronged with well-dressed pedestrians and whose roadway was filled with motor cars

rous wagons jogged by; in place of the well-dressed throng were figures rough-clad and grimy that hurried along the narrow sidewalks-but these rough-clad people walked fast and purposefully. So we hummed along streets wide or narrow but always grimy

ad thought out and contrived lethal weapons from his youth up, and therewith retained so kindly and genial a personality as drew me irresistibly. Wherefore I gave myself to his guidance, and he, chatting of books and literature and the like trivia

y the sudden glare of furnace fires were figures, bare-armed, smoke-grimed, wild of aspect, figures that whirled heavy sledges or worked the levers of the giant steam-hammers, while here and there bars of iron new-glowing from the furnace winked

ls ... come and see an

ome account among these salamanders, who, nodding to certain words addressed to him by the Captain, seized a pair of tongs, swung open a furnace door, and plucking thence a glowing brand, whirled it with practised ease, and setting it upon the dies beneath a huge steam-hammer, nodded his head. Instantly that mighty engine fell to work, thumping and banging with mighty strokes, a

tes ... t

n sunshine again, and the Captain

ater than bo

ys he, "there are books

es of trimming, milling, turning, boring, rifling until comes the assembling, and I take up the finished rifle ready for its final process-testing. So downstairs we go

n crutches, their muzzles levelled at so many targets. Beside each rifle stand two men, one to sight

adjusting the back-sight of a rifle, talked to me of lines of sight and angles of deflection, his remarks

ing used to it-we was all kids once, sir, remember! But a bit of correction here an' there'll put that right as a rule. On the other hand there's rifles as Old Nick himself nor nobody else could make shoot straight-ready, George? And it's

e o'c

orge loads and fires and with one ey

o'cl

ng, again the rifle crack

bul

ys he, then, while George the silent stacks the tested rifle with many others, h

go, and unwillingly I follow him out into the

ts at the rate of six hundred per minute; how, by varying pressures of the trigger, it could be fired by single rounds

is pleasant voice, much as though he were showing me some rare

ice should be the voice of swift and terrible death. Now as I gazed upon them, filled with these scarcely definable thoughts, I was startled by a sudden shattering crash near by, a sound made up of many individual reports, and swinging about, I espied a man seated upon a stool; a plump, middle-aged, family sort of man, who sat upon his low stool, his aproned knees set wide, as plump, middle-aged family me

true-you can't miss. A quick pull for singl

ps, the air throbbed, and a stream of ten bullets (the testing num

s stomach," said Paterfamilias thoughtfully, laying a hand upon the respectable

ver, suggested that my companions had a train to catch, wherefore I reluctantly turned away. But as I went, needs must I glance back at Paterfamilias, as comfortable as ev

er than attending to their bodily ills; and talking thus, he brought me to the place, a place of exquisite order and tidiness, yet where nurses, blue-uniformed, in their white caps, cuffs and aprons, seemed to me the neatest of all. And here I was introduced to Sister, capable, strong, gentle-eyed, who told me something of her work-how many came to her with wounds of soul as well as body; of griefs endured and wrongs suffered by reason of pitiful lack of knowledge;

eventually shook hands with my Captain,

rticularly this afternoon?"

either the Lewis gun or