“And did you, Joses?”
“Well, I did, Master Bart, but it took me a long while for it. I knew exactly where it was, but I couldn’t see it for the crowd of fellows round, and I daren’t shoot unless I was sure, or else I should have brought them on to me like a shot.”
“Of course, of course, Joses,” cried Bart, who was deeply interested.
“Well, Master Bart, I had to wait till I thought I should never get a chance, and then they opened right out, and I could see the exact spot where to send my bullet, when I trembled so that I daren’t pull trigger, and when I could they all crowded up again.”
“But they gave you another chance, Joses?” cried Bart excitedly.
“To be sure they did, my lad, at last, and that time it was only after a deal of dodging about that there was any chance, and, laying my rifle on the rock, I drew trigger, saw the stones, flash as the bullet struck, just, too, when they were all cheering, the beasts, at what they’d done to those two poor fellows.”
“And then there was the awful flash and roar, Joses?”
“Yes, Master Bart, and the Injuns never knew what was the matter, and that’s all.”
“All, Joses?”
“Yes, Master Bart, and wasn’t it enough? But you’d better not tell the master; he might say he didn’t object to an Injun or two killed in self-defence, but that this was wholesale.”