Terry had given Tom a check for one thousand dollars, and Tom hurried off to the bank with it, cashed it, and covered all the bets.
The depot agent acted as stakeholder.
Then they went about a quarter of a mile up the road into a piece of timber, where thirty paces were stepped off, and a piece of white paper, about an inch square, was fastened, against the tree.
One man carried a sharp axe with him, saying that he was not going to let any trick be played on him.
"It's easy enough," said he, "for one shot to be fired in the tree and the other shots just to be blank cartridges."
Terry then fired the first shot, and every man in the party went to the tree to look at the bullet hole.
Then Terry fired the other live shots with cool deliberation and caution.
When the whole six bullets had been fired no one could tell, from the appearance of the bullet hole, that any other bullet had hit the tree.
The man with the axe proceeded to cut into the tree in quest of the bullets, and the whole six bullets were found, one on top of the other.
When they came back the report was that six bullets were shot into the first bullet hole and were found when the chips were cut out.