“I’ll increase the interest again, if you like,” the lad replied.
Lisle joined the group.
“What’s it all about?” he asked.
“Batley’s a pretty good rifle shot, but if he won’t mind my saying so he’s a little opinionated,” Gladwyne explained. “Crestwick questioned an idea of his, and the end of it was that Batley offered to prove his point—that a stiff pull-off is as good as a light one in practised hands—by backing himself to beat the field. Crestwick took him up, and since the rest of us were obviously out of it, the thing has resolved itself into a match between the two. Crestwick is using an easy-triggered rifle; Batley’s has an unusually hard spring.”
Lisle considered. Remembering Bella’s remarks, he thought it would be easy to lure the lad into a rash bet. He was headstrong and his manners might have been more conciliatory, but Lisle, learning the amount of the stakes, decided that his host should not have let the thing go so far.
“Crestwick doubled several times; he’s stubborn and doesn’t like to be beaten,” Gladwyne resumed. “I had the same ideas when I was as young as he is.”
“I’ve offered to let him off,” Batley broke in. “I’d do so now only he’s kept me shooting for the last half-hour. As Gladwyne says, he’s obstinate, and it’s a pity that he’s wrong. If he’d trained his wrist-tendons by using a harder trigger, he’d have made a passably good shot.”
Lisle was aware that while there was something to be said for Batley’s view, Crestwick was justified in contending that the lighter tension was more adapted to the case of the average person; but he recognized that the indulgent manner of the older men was calculated, he thought intentionally, to exasperate the hot-headed lad.
“Well,” he observed, addressing Batley, “you have the courage of your convictions if you have offered to maintain them against all comers, which I understand is what you have done.”
The man nodded carelessly and Lisle went on: