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Updated: May 3, 2025
He trailed the deer, and came upon it standing broadside while it browsed. Good! He took aim, but the rifle flashed in the pan. Off ran the deer. "Tarnation!" muttered Captain Brady, and sat down to prick the touch-hole. Then he determinedly set out after the deer.
He then sprinkled a little train of powder along the gun, from the touch-hole to the base-ring, for if he applied the match directly to the touch-hole the force of the explosion was liable to blow his linstock from his hand. In any case the "huff" or "spit" of fire, from the touch-hole, burned little holes, like pock-marks, in the beams overhead.
You would almost think a great gun had been discharged; and if you noticed the light wreath of vapor from the spiracle at his other extremity, you would think that that was the smoke from the touch-hole.
"I did not know that you use the blunderbuss in your ships at all," said Dechamp, with a look of assumed simplicity. "Ho yes, they do," said Jenkins, squinting down the bell-mouthed barrel, as if to see that the touch-hole was clear. "Aboard o' one man-o'-war that I sailed in after pirates in the China seas, we had a blunderbuss company.
Into the touch-hole of every gun a spike nail was driven as far as it would go, thus effectually preventing the possibility of the weapon being fired until the spike was drilled out, which would necessitate the expenditure of at least an hour of hard work.
One hundred and eighty-eight workshops for repairing arms of every description. Before the war, there existed but six. The establishment of a manufactory of carbines, the making of which was till then unknown in France. The art of renewing the touch-hole of cannon discovered, and carried immediately to a perfection which admits of its being exercised in the midst of camps.
As this was the first time the gun had been brought into action, and there was no telling for certain which way it would act, Campbell thought it best to be cautious; so he ordered all his men to take shelter behind the store. He then selected a long piece of bark, which he lighted at the fire, and, standing behind an angle of the building, he applied the light to the touch-hole.
"Faith," answered Jack, unblushingly, "Admiral Lord Comyn, my father, wished me to serve awhile. And so I have taken two cruises, delivered some score of commands, and scarce know a supple jack from a can of flip. Cursed if I see the fun of it in these piping times o' peace, so I have given it up, Richard. For Charles says this Falkland business with Spain will blow out of the touch-hole."
It looked to be the same "dummy" of seven years ago: a wooden cannon. Captain Sullivan had climbed up. He stood with a fire-brand over the touch-hole, waiting. The Indians jeered and gestured. "Boom! Boom!" they challenged. "Make noise!" They were massed, capering and mocking. Captain Sullivan lowered the fire-brand. The little "bull-dog" belched smoke. "Boom!"
With several other hands Joe had made all secure, because the guns were apt to get adrift in such weather as this and plunge to and fro across the deck like maddened beasts. He had satisfied himself that the tompion, or wooden plug which sealed the muzzle was tight, and that no water had leaked through the wrapping of tarred canvas which protected the touch-hole.
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