“Of course! I don’t know how I overlooked that. It’s not only cheaper, but it’s more effectual than the other way, for if wires break or get tangled, no harm is done.”
“No, especially if we have a telltale in the cave and disconnect the broken wire. Well, go on. The gatlings?”
“Yes—that’s arranged. In the center of the inner circle, on a spacious platform six feet high, I’ve grouped a battery of thirteen gatling guns, and provided plenty of ammunition.”
“That’s it. They command every approach, and when the Church’s knights arrive, there’s going to be music. The brow of the precipice over the cave—”
“I’ve got a wire fence there, and a gatling. They won’t drop any rocks down on us.”
“Well, and the glass-cylinder dynamite torpedoes?”
“That’s attended to. It’s the prettiest garden that was ever planted. It’s a belt forty feet wide, and goes around the outer fence—distance between it and the fence one hundred yards—kind of neutral ground that space is. There isn’t a single square yard of that whole belt but is equipped with a torpedo. We laid them on the surface of the ground, and sprinkled a layer of sand over them. It’s an innocent looking garden, but you let a man start in to hoe it once, and you’ll see.”
“You tested the torpedoes?”
“Well, I was going to, but—”
“But what? Why, it’s an immense oversight not to apply a—”
“Test? Yes, I know; but they’re all right; I laid a few in the public road beyond our lines and they’ve been tested.”