Crack! again. And through the right eye sped the unerring bullet. It flattened against the wall, and dropped with a chink to the floor of the niche.
"Don't want to riddle that head at the back," said Jonas. "Try another skull. The next man!"
Other marksmen levelled their weapons at other figures, and showed proof of skill such as I had never even imagined. One bullet only failed. It crushed in a skull between the eyes.
"Put him out! put him out!" squeaked the Admiral. "He's ruined the Chief Justice for life!" At this witty sally there was a great roar. I wondered that the figures still stood, each one in his niche. I could not understand why this was so, or why they had not long ago fallen to the floor of the cave. When the disgraced marksman was thrust outside the archway, Captain Jonas slid down from his seat and limped to the centre of the hall. He bowed low to young Trevelyan, with a certain sort of sneering deference which persons of his class usually feel for men of higher station.
"Would Lord Trevelyan like to try his hand at this very pretty game?" he asked.
The lad raised his eye, in which at once there appeared a gleam of hope. He thrust out his hand for the weapon.
The Admiral laughed in his high key.
"No, no!" he said. "That was not the meaning of Captain Jonas, plain Captain Jonas. He meant to reverse the order of things. He meant to inquire if Lord George Trevelyan would like to stand as a target. I promise you, my lord, you need feel no fear. We can shoot all round your body. Put a bullet so close to your left ear that it will deafen you for a week. Put one so close to your right ear that it will snap the drum merely from the concussion of the air. We will cut your pockets off one after the other, and touch neither your heart, your lights, or your liver. I myself can score a pathway through those golden curls on top of your very handsome head and never touch the scalp. I can—Why, what's the matter with the young lord? Chicken-livered, hey, my lord, hey?"
Trevelyan made no reply, but dropped his head lower upon his breast. The Admiral drained his cup and handed it to one of the men that it might be replenished at the flaming bowl.
"Is it not time to finish this business?" asked the Admiral, jerking his head in the direction of the lad.