Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/303

Rh said, 'If you want to do it in the dark, I'm agreeable'; for I'd been thinking that maybe it was only because of the dark, now, that I had my nerve, and maybe when daylight came and I could see him, I might be afraid of him. So we agreed to it.

"He felt for me in the dark, and held out five shells. We'd agreed in the afternoon to fight at fifty paces with five shells each—steel-patched bullets and shoot till one killed. So he counted out five in his hand and offered them to me, keeping the other five for himself. I felt the five he gave me. They were full metal-patched, all right; the kind for men to fight with; they'd either kill or make a clean wound. But something about him—and I knew I had to be looking for devilment—made me suspicious of him. 'What are your five,' I said at a venture; 'soft-nose? Are you going to use sporting lead on me?' 'They're the same as yours,' he said; but I got more suspicious. 'Let's trade, then,' I said. 'Feel the steel on them, then,' he handed me one. I felt; and it was metal-patched, all right; but then I knew what was the bottom of his whole objection to the bullets; his shell was heavier than mine. Mine were lighter; they were unloaded; I mean they had no powder. He knew the powder we use was so little compared to the weight of the case and bullet it could easily pass all right; no one could spot the difference—no one, except one trained like me; and I was sure he never thought I could. It all flashed across me ten times quicker than that as soon as I felt his cartridges; but I said nothing. I told you I had my nerve that night. For the same second my plan flashed to me,