Page:C Q, or, In the Wireless House (Train, 1912).djvu/159

 clung to him. He saw it and could hardly sit his horse.

“‘Well,’ I said, riding alongside of him.

“He was shaking like a leaf.

“‘Cosmo!’ he stammered. ‘You don’t mean it, man?’ “I put my hand in my pocket and handed him my own pistol—a fool thing.

“‘You see that copse?’ I said to him. ‘Get off your horse and go in there.’ “He got off and almost fell, but he took the pistol and went staggering into the trees.

I waited but again nothing happened. I must have stood there ten minutes. Then I tied the horse and went in after him. The cur was leaning against a tree and the pistol was on the ground beside him. He simply could n’t do it. When he saw me he began to swear just to keep his courage up.

“‘Well?' I said. ‘Will you or shall I?’

“Then all of a sudden he made a dive for the pistol, and rushed at me with a kind of scream, and m the struggle it went off and killed him I did n’t fire it; but that was a mere accident, for I would have. Only, as it happened, he