Westby looked at him coolly. “It’s funny you’ve never done anything that most fellows do,” he observed. “Were you always afraid of hurting yourself?”
“I was offering my congratulations, Westby,” said Irving stiffly, and walked away.
“Why did you go at him like that?” asked Carroll, who had heard the interchange.
“Oh,” said Westby, “I wasn’t going to have him hanging round swiping to me, soft-soaping me.”
“I think he was only trying to be decent,” said Carroll.
“I like a man who is decent without trying,” Westby retorted.
Yet whether his nerves were a little upset by the episode or his eye thrown off by the wait, Westby did not do so well in the next round. The trap was set to send the birds skimming lower and faster; Westby missed two out of ten, and was tied for first place with Carroll. And in the final shoot to break the tie, Westby lost.
He shook hands with Carroll, but with no excess of good humor. He knew he was really the better shot, and even though Carroll was his closest friend, the defeat rankled.
At supper Blake congratulated Carroll across the table.
“You won, did you, Carroll?” asked Irving.