I say, Frank, let us try a shot with the pistols--I'll
get the case--stick up that fellow-commoner upon the fence there, and
mark off a twenty paces."
The marking irons were produced, and loaded--"Fire--one--two--three"--
bang! and the shivering of the glass announced that never more would
that chap hold the generous liquor; the ball had struck it plump in the
centre, and broken off the whole above the shoulder, for it was fixed
neck downward on the stake.
"It is my turn now," said I; and more by luck, I fancy, than by skill, I
took the neck off, leaving nothing but the thick ring of the mouth still
sticking on the summit of the fence.
"I'll hold you a dozen of my best Regalias against as many of Manillas,
that I break the ring."
"Done, Harry!"
"Done!"
Again the pistol cracked, and the unerring ball drove the small fragment
into a thousand splinters.
"That fotched 'um!" exclaimed Tim, who had come up to announce all
ready. "Ecod, measter Frank, you munna wager i' that gate* [*Gate--
Yorkshire; Anglice, way.] wi' master, or my name beant Tim, but thou'lt
be clean bamboozled."
Well, not to make a short story long, we got under way again, and, with
speed unabated, spanked along at full twelve miles an hour for five
miles farther.
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