Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-08-14

of powder. and having poured &c into The MIS-
.oi, no called tor the rammer. He then put
in the same ball which he had used heser.
MsaIShiie ga, Joe had been loading his- own
9 One moment, . uttered Joe, rssehins on,
his hand !" the caps are In Che butt Of Jour
The fellow passed over III. pistol, bat n.
kept his eyes upon &C.. Joe opened Q little sil-
YER spring at the end Of the butt, and true,
tnere were some percussion caps there. He
took out the two, and haying capped his
own pistol, he gave 1t a toss into the air catch
ing II adroitiy as II came down, and then
handed back the other 20 the Spaniard. had
watched Joe most carefully, but / saw nothing
Out 9, .he way and Jet he had changed pistols
!" Now" said he, arn pu. ba,l into NV
pistol, and then well be ready =
he slipped something in, which locked 10
me IKE cartridge, but no one else saw II.
hold this in your mouth -
Again they took their stations, and azain
they were ready,
"0ne-twolthree -, l,+
And the Spsniard fred frst. by aim. Joe
firing into the air as before And again Joe
stepped forward and took the seIf-same ballet
rom MS mouth, and handed Il to his antago-
mist - The fellow was completely aumfound-
ed and 50 were the rest -
lou no fre at me-" gasped the Captain.
ii fre at you next time" said Joe. 10 a
tone Of thunder. aThus far L have ouly
showed you that powder and balls can have no
effect on me. Twice have you fred at me,
with as true pistol rs was ever made, and
o. Dotn times have l fred in the air. / meant
that you should live long enough to know that
for once in your life you had seen, If not the
old fellow himself, (pointing meaningly down
ward,) at least one who is in his eupIoy. The
oh gentleman will like the company of q
spanish captain of infantry, and IN send you
aiong Come, load up again ,r
But the astonished Spaniard did not seem
ing knives as he would sardines, and who
caught pistol balls between his teeth, was not
exactly the man for him TO deal with. While
ne was pondering upon what he had seen. Joe
look handful of bullets from his pocket. and
began TO toss them rapidly down his throat, :
ana when these were gone, he picked up half
q a9zen good-sised stones, and sent them after
Holy Santa Marie :" calculated the Span
lard, twhat a man By my soul, 'tis the
deyil.'i ;8s-.st \ - - =
And as he thus spoke, he turned on his heel
ana burned away from the place After he
was gone, Joe beckoned for me 10 give him
the knives: l did 90, and then saw him. slip
them up his coat sleeves. When we returned
to the cafe, he approached the keeper
:. You want your knives" he said. - sL
But the poor fellow dared not speak Joe
put his right hand TO his ear, and pulled one
Of the long knives out. Then, from the left
ear he drew the other one. The keeper crossed
himselfin terror, and shrank tremblingly away.
But We finished our wine and having paid for
IT, we turned 10 90 ID -l- t'a-l- st-
When We were slQpe be explained 10 me the
secret of his pistols. They were a pair he had
used in his legerdemain performances, and
such as all wizards use who perform tricks Of
catching balls, &c. The main barrel Of the
pistoi had no connection whatever With the
nipple for the cap; but what appeared 10 be
a socket tor the rammer was in fact a second
barrel--to be sure smaller than the other, but
yet as large as the bore of any rife -pistol-snd
with this secret barrel the priming-tube con
nected: SO the apparent barrel of the weapon
might be filled with powder and balls, and no
harm could be done. When Joe irst returned
with his pistols, Of course he had both these
secret bores loaded with blank charges aud
then the other losding was for nothing but ef-
feet in appearance At the second loading Joe
had charged the secret barrel Of his own pis-
tOl, while the spaniard had been filing up the
main barrel of his. Then, Of course ii be.
,ame necessary to make an exchange, else BIZ
Ear would have never got his weapon of As
soon as Joe got the other pistol into bis posses-
non, and made the exchange which he spoke
'f at the time, he had only 10 press smartly
upon a secret spring on the side Of the stock,
and he had the whole charge, which the ether
put in, emptied into his hand. So he had the
marked ball to dispose of as he chose.
Ever after that, while we remained in Ma
lon, Joe Lattit was an object of both curiosity
ind dread on shore, for an account, all colored
o suit the exaggerated conceptions Of the cafe
Keeper, had. been spread over the city, and
he pious Catholics there wanted nothing more
o do with such a man, only to be sure 10 keep
IN his good humored side.