Bang! the ball rushed forth, but not now in the course it would have taken had a hair-trigger and a spring instantly translated his original will into action. In these momentary divisions of time which had elapsed since he settled his aim, the long barrel, resting on the staff and moving easily on its pivot, had imperceptibly drooped a trifle at the breech and risen as much at the muzzle.
The ball flew high, hit the water six inches beyond the fish, and fired at so low an angle ricochetted, and went skipping along the surface, cutting out pieces of weed till the friction dragged it under, and it sank. The fish swished his tail like a scull at the stern of a boat or the screw of a steamer, but swift as was his spring forward, he would not have escaped had not the ball gone high. He left an undulation on the surface as he dived unhurt.
Bevis stamped his foot to think he had missed again.
“It was the water,” said Mark. “The bullet went duck and drake; I saw it.”
He was too just to recall the fact of his having hit the teak-tree, the tree was so much larger than the fish. As he did not recall his success at the tree, Bevis’s irritation went no farther.
“We must have a top-sight,” he said.
“We won’t use bullets again till we have a sight.”
“No, we won’t. But I’m sure I had the gun straight.”
“So we had the rifle straight, but it did not hit.”
“No, no more did it. There’s something peculiar in bullets—we will find out. I wanted that jack for supper.”