"Aren't you going to use it?" Mrs. Whitcomb gasped.
"It's empty," Mallory explained.
"But the robbers don't know that! Couldn't you just overawe them with it?"
"Not with that," said Mallory, "unless they died laughing."
Mrs. Wellington pushed forward: "Then what the devil are you going to do when they come?"
Mallory answered meekly: "If they request it, I shall hold up my hands."
"And you won't resist?" Kathleen gasped.
"Not a resist."
"And he calls himself a soldier!" she sneered.
Mallory writhed, but all he said was: "A soldier doesn't have to be a jackass. I know just enough about guns not to monkey with the wrong end of 'em."