take
aim at all. Sometimes he would not even lift his gun to his shoulder,
but would fire from his side, or standing with his back to the mark
would turn round and fire instantaneously.

"That sort of thing is only attained by long practice," he would say in
answer to Wilfrid's exclamations of astonishment. "You see, I have been
shooting in different parts of the world and at different sorts of game
for some fifteen years, and in many cases quick shooting is of just as
much importance as straight shooting."

But it was with the revolver that Mr. Atherton most surprised his
friends. He could put six bullets into half a sheet of note-paper at a
distance of fifty yards, firing with such rapidity that the weapon was
emptied in two or three seconds.

"I learned that," he said, "among the cow-boys in the West. Some of them
are perfectly marvellous shots. It is their sole amusement, and they
spend no inconsiderable portion of their pay on cartridges. It seems to
become an instinct with them, however small the object at which they
fire they are almost certain to hit it. It is a common thing with them
for one man to throw an empty meat-tin into the air and for another to
put six bullets in before it touches the ground. So certain are they of
their own and each others' aim, that one will hold a halfpenny between
his finger and thumb for another to fire at from a distance of twenty
yards, and it is a common joke for one to knock another's pipe out of
his mouth when he is quietly smoking.

"As you see, though my shooting seems to you wonderful, I should be
considered quite a poor shot among the cow-boys. Of course, with
incessant practice such as they have I should shoot a good deal better
than I do; but I could never approach their perfection, for the simple
reason that I have not the strength of wrist. They pass their lives in
riding half-broken horses, and incessant exercise and hard work harden
them until their muscles are like steel, and they scarcely feel what to
an ordinary man is a sharp wrench from the recoil of a heavily-loaded
Colt."

Life was in every way pleasant at The Glade. The work of breaking up the
land went on steadily, but the labour, though hard, was not excessive.
In the evening the Allens or Mr. Atherton frequently dropped in, and
occasionally Mr. Mitford and his daughters rode over, or the party came
up in the boat. The expense of living was small. They had an ample
supply of potatoes and other vegeta