AT GATUN LOCKS
"Steady there now, men! Pass forward those lashings! Careful! Look out, or you'll be caught by it when she rolls! Another turn around the bitts!"It was the officer of the deck giving orders to a number of marines and sailors as Tom hastily clad, leaped on deck, followed by his chum.The warship was pitching and tossing worse than ever in the heaving billows, and the men were engaged in making fast the giant cannon, which, as Tom had surmised, had torn loose from the steel cables holding it down on deck.
"Come on, Ned!" cried Tom."We've got to help here!""That's right.Look at her swing, would you? If she hits anything it's a goner!"The breech of the gun appeared to be the end that had come loose, while the muzzle still held fast.And this immense mass of steel was swinging about, eluding the efforts of the ship's officers and crew to capture it.And it seemed only a question of time when the muzzle would tear loose, too.Then, free on deck, the giant cannon would roll through the frail bulwarks, and plunge.into the depths of the sea.
"Look out for yourselves, boys!" cried the officer, as he saw Tom and Ned."This is no plaything!""I know it!" gasped Tom."But we've got to fasten it down.""That's what we're trying to do," answered the other."We did get the bight of a cable over the breech, but the men could not hold it, even though they took a couple of turns around the bitts.""Ned, go call Koku!" cried Tom."We need him up here.""That's right!" declared his chum."If anyone can hold the cable with the weight of the big gun straining on it, the giant can.I'll get him!""On deck, Koku, quick!" gasped Ned."Master's cannon may fall into the sea.""But the powder!" asked the big man, simply."Master told me toguard the powder.I stay here."
"No, I'll stay!" insisted Ned."You are needed on deck, I'll take your place here."Koku stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, while the loosened gun continued to thump and pound on the deck as though it would burst through.Then it filtered through the dull brain of honest Koku what was wanted.
"I go," he said, and he hurried up the companionway, while Ned, eager to be with Tom, took up the less exciting work of guarding the powder.
Once more, with the giant strength of Koku to aid in the work, the task of lashing the gun again to the deck was undertaken.A bight of steel cable was gotten around the breech, and then passed to a big bitt, or stanchion, bolted to the deck.Koku, working on the heaving deck, amid the hurricane, took a turn around the brace.
There came a roll of the ship that threatened to send the gun sliding against the stanchion, but Koku braced himself.His arms, great bunches of muscles, strained and fairly cracked with the strain.The wire rope seemed to give.Then, as the ship rolled the other way, the strain eased.Koku, aided by the cable, and by the leverage given by the several turns about the bitts, had held the big gun.
"Quick!" cried Tom."Now another rope so it can't roll the opposite way, and we'll have her."For a moment the ship was on a level keel, and taking advantage of this, when the weight of the gun would be neutral, another cable was passed around it.Then it was a comparatively easy matter to put on more lashings until the giant cannon was once more fast.
"Whew! But that was tough work!" exclaimed Tom, as he once more entered the stateroom with Ned.
"It must have been," agreed his chum, who had been relieved at the powder station by the giant.
"I thought it would surely go overboard," went on Tom."Only for Koku it would have.Those fellows couldn't hold it when the ship rolled.""How did it happen to get loose?" asked Ned.
