Next night Bounce's eyes scintillated light as he fingered the well-made brown leather boxing gloves, and examined the beautiful little American target revolver. "This is fancy," he said, in regard to the latter. "It wouldn't stop a man, though."
"Depends where you hit him," suggested Carstairs.
"That's true, sir."
They retired to a secluded corner of the boiler house, and Bounce fastened a piece of board on the wall and stuck three tin tacks in it, then he drew back as far as the dimensions of the place would admit, which was about fifteen yards. "Shall I have first shot, sir?" he asked.
Carstairs handed him the revolver, and then a box of cartridges. He loaded, then raised his arm, and, taking a fairly long sight at the board, fired. "That's a miss," he observed. "I'll get a bit of chalk."
Stepping up to the board, Carstairs saw that he had missed the head of a tin tack by about a sixteenth of an inch.
Bounce returned from the engine room with a piece of chalk and whitened over the heads of the tin tacks. "I ain't had a shot with a revolver for two years, or more," he observed, apologetically. Then he took another shot and burst the head of one tin tack; his next shot bent the second tin tack over on one side. The third shot drove the remaining tack right home. "There you are, sir," he said, with some pride, handing Carstairs the revolver.
"Look here, Bounce! Is there anything much in the way of offence and defence that you can't do?" Carstairs asked with open admiration.
"Well, I don't think there is very much, sir. I've fired everything up to a six-inch gun, over that I ain't quite sure. Mind, I have afired a twelve-inch, but I ain't quite sure. A twelve-inch takes some handling, see." He stood up very straight, looking Carstairs steadily in the eyes as he made this simple statement.
Then they boxed, and the applicability of his surname struck Carstairs more than ever; he seemed literally to bounce out of the way, just when Carstairs was going to hit him, and he bounced in again with singular directness and precision immediately Carstairs had missed him. Every night for the rest of the week they boxed for half an hour at a time, and Carstairs, with his clear head and steady nerves, soon began to make progress.