Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/339

 whites of his eyes freely; niver mention it, Mr. Slagg; accidents will happen, you know, in the best regulated families. As for me beaver, it 's better riddled than whole in this warm weather. Maybe you 'd as well carry your gun at what sodgers call 'the showlder,' wid the muzzle pintin' at the moon—so; that 's it. Don't blame yoursilf, Mr. Slagg. Sure, it 's worse than that I was when I begood, for the nasty thing I carried wint off somehow of its own accord, an' I shot me mother's finest pig—wan barrel into the tail, an' the other into the hid. You see, they both wint off a'most at the same moment. We must learn by exparience, av coorse. You 've not had much shootin' yet, I suppose?"

Poor, self-condemned Slagg admitted that he had not, and humbly attended to Flinn's instructions, after which they proceeded on their way; but it might have been observed that Flinn kept a corner of his eye steadily on his new friend during the remainder of that day, while the attenuated black kept so close to Slagg's elbow as to render the pointing of the muzzle of his gun at him an impossibility.

Presently there was heard among the bushes a whirring of wings, and up flew a covey of large birds of the turkey species. Flinn stepped briskly aside, saying, "Now thin, let drive!" while the attenuated black fell cautiously in rear.

Bang! bang! went Slagg's gun.