accustomed to it. It is in some places,
unluckily, a matter of life and death as well as daily practice to draw
first. I have known really lamentable accidents occur from a man
carrying a revolver when he did not know what to do with it. Do you
understand anything about revolvers?"

"N-no," I stammered, "of course not."

"Do you think of carrying one?"

"Of course not. I don't want to kill myself."

"Then you are safe. But remember you will be moving among men who go
heeled, and you will hear a good deal of talk about the thing and a
great many tall stories. You may listen to the yarns, but you must not
conform to the custom however much you may feel tempted. You invite your
own death if you lay your hand on a weapon you don't understand. No man
flourishes a revolver in a bad place. It is produced for one specified
purpose and produced before you can wink."

"But surely if you draw first you have an advantage over the other man,"
said I, valorously.

"You think so? Let me show you. I have no use for any weapon, but I
believe I have one about me somewhere. An ounce of demonstration is
worth a ton of theory. Your pipe-case is on the table. My hands are on
the table too. Use that pipe case as a revolver and as quickly as you
can."

I used it in the approved style of the penny dreadful--pointed it with a
stiff arm at my friend's head. Before I knew how it came about the pipe
case had quitted my hand, which was caught close to the funny-bone and
tingled horribly. I heard four persuasive clicks under the table almost
before I knew that my arm was useless. The gentleman from California had
jerked out his pistol from its pocket and drawn the trigger four times,
his hand resting on his hip while I was lifting my right arm.

"Now, do you believe?" he said. "Only an Englishman or an Eastern man
fires from the shoulder in that melodramatic manner. I had you safe
before your arm went out, merely because I happened to know the trick;
and there are men out yonder who in a trouble could hold me as safe as I
held you. They don't reach round for their revolver, as novelists say.
It's here in front, close to the second right brace-button, and it is
fired, without aim, at the other man's stomach. You will understand now
why in event of a dispute you should show very clearly that you are
unarmed. You needn't hold up your hands ostentatiously; keep them out of
your pockets, or somewhere where your friend can see them. No man will