A GOOD SHOT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1142, 6 May 1885, Page 4

A GOOD SHOT.

"There was one Russian fellow," says a writer on the Crimean War, in " All the Year Round," " that had a sandpit all of his own, right in front of our trenches. I never saw a man so persevering as that man was. Early in the morning he'd be popping away, and there he'd stay until nightfall. "Many a good fellow he sent to glory. It got to be such a nuisance that we dropped shells at him now and again, but he minded them no more than if they, had been so many oranges. , ,", One day ;I was down in the trenches, when Colonel Mancer, of the Forty-eighth — a splendid Bhot and a great man for sport — came along. A party with a sergeant were at work, and just as the colonel came up one of them' dropped with a ball through his head. "'Deuced good shot! Who fired that ? ' said the colonel putting up his eyeglass. " ' Man in the rifle-pit to the left, sir,' answers the sergeant. "'Never saw a neater shot,' says the colonel. "'Now, major,' says the colonel turning to another officer that was with him, ' what's the odds against my picking him off ? ' " ' In how long ? ' " ' Within ten minutes.' " ' Two to one, in ponies, I'll give you,' said the major. " ' Say three, and it's a bargain.' " ' Three to one in ponies,' answered the major, and the bet was made. " He was a great man for measuring his powder, was the colonel, and always emptied out a cartridge to his taste. He took about half his time getting the sergeant's gun loaded to please him. At last he got it right, and the glass screwed well into his eye. " ' Now, my lads,' says he, ' just push poor Smith up here over the trench. He's dead enough, and another wound will make little difference to him.' 1 [ "The men began to hoist the body I up, and the colonel stood, maybe, twenty yards off, peering over the edge with eyes like a lynx. As soon as .the top ofSmith's shako appeared we saw the barrel of the gun come slowly out of the sandpit, and when his poor dead face looked over the edge, whizz came a bullet right through his forehead. "The Ruasjah peeped out of the ; piirto see the effect of his shot. The \ colonel fired with a sort, of chuckle, I and the rifleman sprang up in the air,, and ran a matter often or twelve paces towards us, and then down on his face as dead as a doornail. '"Double or quits on the man in the pit to the right,' says the colonel, loading up his gun again. " But I think the major had dropped money enough for one day over his shooting, for he wouldn't hear of another try. " By the way, it was handed over to Smith's widow, for he was a free-handed gentleman was the colonel."