in the fence against which I had fixed my mark, that it
required a good strong knife to get them out. This I propose that you
should use to-morrow, with a 1 1/2 oz. SG cartridge, which contains
eighteen buck-shot, and which, if you get a shot any where within a
hundred yards, will kill him as dead, I warrant it, as an ounce bullet."

"Which you intend to try, I fancy," added Frank.

"Not quite! my rifle carries eighteen only to the pound; and yours, if I
forget not, only thirty-two."

"But mine is double."

"Never mind that; thirty-two will not execute with certainty above a
hundred and fifty yards!"

"And how far in the devil's name would you have it execute, as you calls
it," asked old Tom.

"Three hundred!" replied Harry, coolly.

"Thunder!" replied Draw, "don't tell me no sich thunderin' nonsense;
I'll stand all day and be shot at, like a Christmas turkey, at sixty
rods, for six-pence a shot, any how."

"I'll bet you all the liquor we can drink while we are here, Tom,"
answered Harry, "that I hit a four foot target at three hundred yards
to-morrow!"

"Off hand?" inquired Tom, with an attempt at a sneer.

"Yes, off hand! and no shot to do that either; I know men--lots of them
--who would bet to hit a foot square at that distance!"* [*When this was
written strong exception was taken to it by a Southern writer in the
Spirit of the Times. Had that gentleman known what is the practice of
the heavy Tyrolese rifle he would not have written so confidently. But
it is needless to go so far as to the Tyrol. There is a well known
rifle-shot in New York, who can perform the feat, any day, which the
Southern writer scoffed at as utterly impossible. Scrope on Deerstalking
will show to any impartial reader's satisfaction, that stags in the
Highlands are rarely killed within 200 and generally beyond 300 yards'
distance.]

"Well! you can't hit four, no how!"

"Will you bet?"

"Sartain!"

"Very well--Done--Twenty dollars I will stake against all the liquor we
drink while we're here. Is it a bet?"

"Yes! Done!" cried Tom--"at the first shot, you know; I gives no second
chances."

"Very well, as you please!--I'm sure of it, that's all--Lord, Frank, how
we will drink and treat--I shall invite all the town up here to-morrow--
Come!--One more round for luck, and then to bed!"

"Content!" cried A---; "but I mean Mr. Draw to have an argument
to-morrow night about this point of Setter vs. Pointer! How do you say,
Harr