As 117 shots are to one shot, so is fifty yards to X (the distance the adversary must be off to enable him to be winged, with a single shot).
This makes X equal 15.381 inches.
As to kill is about three times as difficult as to wing, divide by three, this gives 5.127 inches as the longest range at which it is possible to kill a man with a single shot, “which is absurd.” Q.E.D.
Another novel writer made use of one of my books very effectively to describe the duel, with all details correct, except that he made the distance between the duellists five yards, and they missed each other twice at this distance!
Allowing for each duellist three feet from where he stands to the end of the muzzle of his pistol they would have only three yards between the muzzles of their pistols. The writer must have either been unacquainted with French metric measures (I gave twenty-five meters as the duelling distance) or else he confused it with a sword duel.
CHAPTER LVI
GRIP
There is a great variety of opinions as to the shape and size a pistol stock should have so as to give the best grip.