itional
for every child he has, and that would make eight. So you might as well
give him a blunderbuss and slugs at once."

Dick loaded the pistol-case, having made all right, and desired Andy to
mount a horse, carry it by a back road out of the demesne, and wait at
a certain gate he named until he should be joined there by himself and
the squire, who proceeded at the appointed time to the ground.

Andy was all ready, and followed his master and Dick with great pride,
bearing the pistol-case after them to the ground, where Murphy and Tom
Durfy were ready to receive them; and a great number of spectators were
assembled, for the noise of the business had gone abroad, and the
ground was in consequence crowded.

Tom Durfy had warned Murtough Murphy, who had no experience as a pistol
man, that the squire was a capital shot, and that his only chance was
to fire as quickly as he could. "Slap at him, Morty, my boy, the minute
you get the word; and if you don't hit him itself, it will prevent his
dwelling on his aim."

Tom Durfy and Dick the Devil soon settled the preliminaries of the
ground and mode of firing, and twelve paces having been marked, both
the seconds opened their pistol-cases and prepared to load. Andy was
close to Dick all the time, kneeling beside the pistol-case, which lay
on the sod; and as Dick turned round to settle some other point on
which Tom Durfy questioned him, Andy thought he might snatch the
opportunity of giving his master "the chance" he suggested to his
second. "Sure, if Misther Dick wouldn't like to do it, that's no raison
I wouldn't," said Andy to himself, "and, by the powers! I'll pop in a
ball _onknownst_ to him." And, sure enough, Andy contrived, while the
seconds were engaged with each other, to put a ball into each pistol
before the barrel was loaded with powder, so that when Dick took up his
pistols to load, a bullet lay between the powder and the touch-hole.
Now, this must have been discovered by Dick, had he been cool: but he
and Tom Durfy had wrangled very much about the point they had been
discussing, and Dick, at no time the quietest person in the world, was
in such a rage that the pistols were loaded by him without noticing
Andy's ingenious interference, and he handed a harmless weapon to his
brother-in-law when he placed him on his ground.

The word was given. Murtough, following his friend's advice, fired
instantly--bang he went, while the squire returned but a flash in the
pa