He gazed about him, and then rapping out a string of oaths, English, Italian, and French, for he swore in all the languages he spoke, which, he once told me, were five, he declared that for his part he considered the powder wasted, that we'd have done as well to fling a hand-grenade into a fissure, that a thousand barrels of powder would be but as a popgun for rending the schooner's bed from the main, and in short, with several insulting looks and a face black with rage and disappointment, gave me very plainly to know that I had not only played the fool myself, but had made a fool of him, and that he was heartily sorry he had ever given himself any trouble to contrive the cursed mines or to assist me in a ridiculous project that might have resulted in blowing the schooner to pieces and ourselves with it.
"The Frozen Pirate"
W. Clark Russell
"If it really is the German raider," he remarked, "they might as well fire off a popgun as that thing.
"The Box with the Broken Seals"
E. Phillips Oppenheim
If I could see her smile again I'd fire a feu de joie if I could find any ordnance larger than a popgun.
"His Sombre Rivals"
E. P. Roe