Part 16 (2/2)
Using a very simple rule of algebra, which the boy knew quite well, but giving an application he never would have thought of, Dan brought the solution in a second. Hardly believing that mere mathematics could be of any service in a baseball game, Eric tested the result. It was exactly as the old man had said.
”Gee,” he said, ”that's great!”
The puzzle-maker smiled, and showed him how ma.s.s-play in football was a matter of science, not strength, and how lacrosse was a question of trajectory.
”Not only in games,” he said. ”'Rithmetic, geometry--in everything. You know Muldoon.”
”Sure I know Muldoon,” the boy said.
”Have you seen him shoot?”
”With the Lyle gun, you mean? Isn't he a dandy at it?”
”That is what I would say,” the old man continued. ”How does he fire him?”
”Why, he just fires it! No,” he corrected himself, ”he doesn't either. I see what you're driving at. That's right, I did see him doing some figuring the other day.”
”I teach Muldoon,” said the old man. ”I show him how to tell how much wind, how to tell how far away a s.h.i.+p, how to tell when a line is heavy or light. He figure everything, then fire. Bang! And the line to bring the drowning men home falls right over the s.h.i.+p. It is?”
”It is, all right,” the boy agreed. ”Muldoon gets there every time. I always thought he just aimed the gun, sort of naturally.”
”It is all mathematics,” said the old man. ”You have guns in the Coast Guard?”
”Rapid-fire six-pounders,” the boy answered. ”At least I know that's what the _Itasca's_ got. She's the practice-s.h.i.+p at New London, you know.”
”Do you have to learn gunnery?”
”Rather,” said the lad. ”Every breed of gunnery that there is. You know a Coast Guard cutter becomes a part of the navy in time of war, so an officer has got to know just as much about big guns as an officer in the navy. He might have to take his rank on a big battles.h.i.+p if the United States was at war. You bet I'll have to learn gunnery. That ought to be heaps of fun.”
”But gunnery is ballistics,” the old man said. ”And ballistics is trigonometry. Big gun is fired by figuring, not by looking.”
”I'm only afraid,” the lad replied, ”that I'll never have a chance at the big gun. Everywhere I go, it's nothing but figuring. And I simply can't get figures into my head.”
”You really want to learn?”
”You bet I do,” said Eric. ”I'm working like a tinker at the stuff every chance I get, but I don't seem to get the hang of it somehow.”
”If you come to me, I teach you.”
”Teach me all I want to know?” said the boy in amazement.
The old man shook his head.
”Teach you to want to know all you have to know. Teach you to like figures.”
Eric looked at him a minute.
<script>