“I could have killed two rebels had I been allowed to shoot,” said Taylor.
“Who told you not to shoot?” demanded the sergeant.
“Well, nobody gave the order to fire. I had my gun cocked and if the rest of you had killed your man I'd killed mine.”
“Bu-bu-bu-but they had si-si-six t-t-to ou-ou-our si-si-six, di-di-didn't they?” interrupted Jack Hazelet, whose stammering always caused him to grow red in the face when he wanted to get a word in in time and couldn't.
“Yes; we stood six to six, but if each one of us had killed his man they would all be dead.”
“Je-je-jesso; bu-bu-bu-but di-di-didn't they ha-ha-have gu-gu-guns, t-t-too?”
“Of course they did.”
“Sup-po-po-posen they ha-ha-had ki-ki-killed 's mama-many f us a-a-as we di-di-did o-o-o-of th-th-them, wh-wh-where wo-wo-would wc-we-we b-b-be n-n-now? co-co-confound you!”
As we found that only two of our party had their carbines loaded when we surprised the rebels, we concluded that it was just as fortunate for us as it was for the enemy that the meeting had resulted in a stand-off, although Taylor insisted that if any one had given the command “fire” he would have killed his man. When his attention was called to the fact that his carbine was not loaded, he said:
“Well, I could have speared one of them with my sword before they could all get away.”