The mountains beneath them soon give way to rolling hills, and on a south-easterly course, it is not long before the barrier islands of the coast are behind them, and ahead stretches the great Atlantic. Alone on the weather-deck, Tommy fetches one of his gun cases, and opening it, he extracts an express rifle, a single shot in Springfield 30-06. He has had the foresight to have brought plenty of extra ammunition for everything in the cases this time, remembering the last time they had embarked with only the ammo included in the cases, and how almost everything he had had been depleted almost utterly before they made it back to the Furnace. His Uncle made I.F.A.& A. weapons in dedicated calibres, specialty arms like his "elephant" gun, which chambered only Iron Furnace ammunition, but he also made guns which fired more standard and readily available cartridges. The "Safari Express" is one such. The big former detective hasn't fired a gun since the Martian adventures- in fact, he missed out on all the shooting once that campaign was truly underway- and some target practice is surely warranted. Opening another largish box, also from I.F.A. & A., he removes a pressurized tank of helium, and a box of bright orange balloons, about 6" in diameter when inflated. Suspended on fine wires beneath each balloon is a clockwork with four wings, brass and wood, which somewhat resembles a dragonfly. T.E. inflates a balloon, winds the clockwork bug, and releases it over the side. The clockwork wings activate, and, both buoyed up by and towing the balloon, it ambles off to starboard. As it becomes more distant, Tommy chambers a round, lines up the fixed sights, and fires. Some hundred yards distant by now, the balloon explodes, and the little clockwork augers into the ocean, still buzzing. "Mmm...yep," he says to himself, "Need the practice..I was aimin' fer the clockwork bug." He fills another balloon, winds the 'bug,' and releases it.