ing open the breech, and
peeping through the barrels as if they formed a double telescope.

"Oh! that's the way, is it?" he said. "But suppose, when the thing goes
off, the shots should come out at this end instead of the other?"

"But you don't fire it off when it's open like that, Mr Burne," cried
Lawrence.

"My dear boy, of course not. Do you suppose I don't understand? You
put in the cartridges like this. No, they won't go in that way. You
put them in like that, and then you pull the trigger."

"No, no, no," cried Lawrence excitedly. "You shut the breech first."

"My dear boy--oh! I see. Yes, of course. Oh! that's what you meant.
Of course, of course. I should have seen that directly. Now, then,
it's all right. Loaded?"

"Sir! sir! sir!" cried the dealer, but he was too late, for the old
lawyer had put the gun to his shoulder, pointing the barrel towards the
door, and pulled both triggers.

The result was a deafening explosion, two puffs of smoke half filling
the place, and the old gentleman was seated upon the floor.

"Good gracious, Burne!" cried the professor, rushing to him, "are you
much hurt?"

Lawrence caught at the chair beside him, turning ashy pale, and gazing
down at the prostrate man, while quite a little crowd of people filled
the shop.

"Hurt?" cried Mr Burne fiercely--"hurt? Hang it, sir, do you think a
man at my time of life can be bumped down upon the floor like that
without being hurt?"

"But are you wounded--injured?"

"Don't I tell you, yes," cried Mr Burne, getting up with great
difficulty. "I'm jarred all up the spinal column."

"But not wounded?"

"Yes, I am, sir--in my self-respect. Here, help me up. Oh, dear! Oh,
lor'! Gently! Oh, my back! Oh, dear! No; I can't sit down. That's
better. Ah!"

"Would you like a doctor fetched?"

"Doctor? Hang your doctor, sir. Do you think I've came out here to be
poisoned by a foreign doctor. Oh, bless my soul! Oh, dear me!
Confound the gun! It's a miserable cheap piece of rubbish. Went off in
my hands. Anyone shot?"

"No, sir," said the dealer quietly; "fortunately you held the muzzle
well up, and the charges went out of the upper part of the door."

"Oh! you're there, are you?" cried Mr Burne furiously, as he lay back
in a cane chair, whose cushion seemed to be comfortable. "How dared you
put such a miserable wretched piece of rubbish as that in my hands!"

The dealer made a deprecatory gesture.

"He