Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/85

 COOPER S LITERARY OFFENSES

with a rifle, and command a ducal salary in a Wild West show to-day if we had him back with us.

The recorded feat is certainly surprising just as it stands; but it is not surprising enough for Cooper. Cooper adds a touch. He has made Pathfinder do this miracle with another man s rifle; and not only that, but Pathfinder did not have even the advantage of loading it himself. He had everything against him, and yet he made that impossible shot ; and not only made it, but did it with absolute confidence, saying, &quot;Be ready to clench.&quot; Now a person like that would have undertaken that same feat with a brickbat, and with Cooper to help he would have achieved it, too.

[Pathfinder showed off handsomely that day before the ladies. His very first feat was a thing which no Wild West show can touch. He was standing with the group of marksmen, observing a hundred yards from the target, mind; one Jasper raised his rifle and drove the center of the bull s-eye. Then the Quartermaster fired. The target exhibited no result this time. There was a laugh. &quot;It s a dead miss,&quot; said Major Lundie. Pathfinder waited an impressive moment or two; then said, in that calm, indifferent, know-it-all way of his, &quot;No, Major, he has covered Jasper s bullet, as will be seen if any one will take the trouble to examine the target.&quot;

Wasn t it remarkable! How could he see that little pellet fly through the air and enter that distant bullet-hole? Yet that is what he did; for nothing is impossible to a Cooper person. Did any of those people have any deep-seated doubts about this thing ? 6 7i

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