“Now, little 'un, it's this away in shootin' a weepon like this—it's the aim that counts most. But with my Colts now—the self-actin' ones—you've got to cal'c'late chiefly on another thing—a kinder thing that ain't in the books—the instinct that makes the han' an' the eye act together an' 'lowin', at the same time, for the leverage on the trigger.” The lad's face glowed with excitement. Jack saw it and said: “Now I'll give you a lesson to-day. Would you like to shoot at that tree?” he asked kindly.
“Do you suppose I could hit the string?” asked the boy innocently.
Jack had to smile. “In time—little 'un—in time you might. You're a queer lad,” he said again laughing. “You aim pretty high.”
“Oh, then I'll never hit below my mark. Let me try the string, please.”
To humor him, Jack tied the string again, and the boy stepped up to the mark and without taking aim, but with that instinct which Jack had just mentioned, that bringing of the hand and eye together unconsciously, he fired and the string flew apart.
“You damned little cuss,” shouted Jack enthusiastically, as he grabbed the boy and hugged him—“to make a sucker of me that way! To take me in like that!”
“Oh,” said the boy, “I do nothing but shoot this thing from morning till night. It was my great grandfather's.”
And from that time the two were one.
But another thing happened which cemented the tie more strongly. One Saturday afternoon Jack took a crowd of his boy friends down to the river for a plunge. The afternoon was bright and warm; the frost of the morning making the water delightful for a short plunge. It was great sport. They all obeyed him and swam in certain places he marked off—all except James Adams. He boldly swam out into the deep current of the river and came near losing his life. Jack plunged in in time to reach him, but had to dive to get him, he having sunk the third time. It required hard work to revive him on the bank, but the man was strong and swung the lad about by the heels till he got the water out of his lungs, and his circulation started again. James opened his eyes at last, and Jack said, smiling: “That's all right, little 'un, but I feared onct, you was gone.”
He took the boy home, and then it was that for the first time for fifteen years he saw and talked to the woman he loved.