“Will it kick?” said Esau.
“Not if you hold it tightly. Now, look here.”
And as I looked on, Mr Gunson showed Esau how to load and fire, and generally how to handle the weapon, the lesson acting as well for me.
“There,” said Mr Gunson at last, “you ought to be a valuable help to me now; for the beauty of a weapon like this is, that the very sight of its barrel will keep most men at a distance; and if they come I hope it will these.”
“Did yesterday, didn’t it?” said Esau, laughingly, to me.
“Now,” said Gunson, “about your rifle, Mayne; can you manage it?”
“I think so,” I said; and I handled it in a way which satisfied my master.
“That’s right,” he said. “Never mind about hitting. To fire is the thing; the noise will, I hope, scare enemies. Now if Quong could be of some use, it would make a show of four defenders; but we know of old his strong point.”
“Getting up a tree,” I said, laughing.
“Exactly. Perhaps he could throw boiling water, but I shall not ask him to do that. There, we are all right; every force must have a commissariat department, and some general once said that an army fights upon its stomach. We’ll have him to feed us, while we keep guard about the place.”