"Old man a-shootin' o' gulls, I h'expec'," he remarked; "'e's blawsted fond o' killin' them pore 'armless birds, the slaughterin' swyne."
Again a report came, and a gull wheeling astern fell dead in the frothy wake.
"He's shore a crackerjack with his weepon," commented Broncho admiringly.
The old man, who was a magnificent shot, soon scared away the following gulls, but not before he had accounted for three of them.
Well knowing what an impression his fine shooting would make upon his crew, it had become a regular policy with him on starting a passage to exhibit his marksmanship.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Old woman," a cattle-ranging term for the cook.
[2] Cinch. The cinch corresponds in an American saddle to the English girth. To cinch a girth up is to draw it tight by means of several turns of strap or rope between the ring of the girth and a ring on the saddle, and from this the word has come to being used in a variety of ways; for instance, Cinch on to that—catch on to that; It's a cinch that—it's a certainty that; What a cinch!—what a good thing! what an easy thing!
[3] True.