Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1873-01-23

Huys ~ Sits Sut thcle, ~ YOU uu'tSc0 u
man, and that man did not like it, you
had to call him out and kill him; other
wise you would be disgraced. o So I chal
longed Mr.. Lord, and l. did hope he
would net accept; but 'Iiknew perfectly
well that he did not want fight, and go
challenged him in the most violent and
imp1acable manner. And then I sat
down and suffered and suffered till the
answer came. ALI our boys--the edi-
tors-were in the Office, "helping" me in
the dismal business; and discussing the
code with lot Of 2ged ruffans who had
had experience in such things, and alto
gctlfar there was q loving interest taken
in the matter, which made me unapeak-
ably uncomfortable. The answer came
Mr.. Lord declined. Our boys were fpri-
Gus, and so was lon the surface.
sent him another challenge, and an
other, and another; and the more he did
not want to fight, the bloodthirsticr be-
came. Butatl last the mans tone changed
He appeared to be waking up. It was
becoming apparent that he was going to
fight me, after all. ought to have known
how it would bc-he was man who could
be depended upon. Our boys were ex-
ultant. was not, though tried to be.
1t wae no;s tim" to go out and prac-
ticc. 1t was the custom there to fight
duels with navy six-shootcrs at fifteen
paccs--load and empty till the game for
the turn tral was secured. We went to
little ravinc just outside of town, and
borrowed q barn-door for targct-bor-
rowcd it from gentleman who was ab-
sent-and We stood this barn-doo up aud
stood n rail on end against the middle of
it, to represent Lord, and put squash
on top of the rail'to represent his head.
He was Il very tall, lean creature, the
poorest sort of material for n duel moth
ing FOR but line shot could 'tfsteha him
and even then he might spit bullet,
Exags Grafton aside, tic rsil was, of consc
IL little too THU to represent his body
accurately, but the squash was all right.
If there was any intellectual .difrencc
between the squash and his head, it was
in favor of the squash.
We'll, practiccd and practi,ed at the
barn door, and could not hit it? and l
practiccd at the rail, and could not hit
that? ard tried hard for the squash,
and could not hit the squash would
have been entirely dishcartcncd, but that
occasionally crippled one of the buys
and That encouraged nc TO hope.
At last we began to hear pistpl-shots
noar by, in the next ratinc. We knew
what that ment. Tho other party were
out pract:cing, too. Then 1 was in the
last degree Of distressed; for, Of course
those people would here our shots, and
they would send spies over the ridge.
and the spies would find my barn door
without wound or scratch, and that
would oimply be the end of mc--tor of
course that other man would Immediate
ly become as bloodthirsty as l was Just
at this moment, little bird, no larger
than sparrow, flew by, and lit on a
bush about thirty PAGES away; and my
little second Steve Gillis, who was n
matccleSs marksman with pistol
much better than was-snatched out
his revolver and shot the birds hrAd of
We all ran to pick Mp shc gsrtc, and
sure enough, just ia that moment, some
Of the other dullcsts came accommodating
over The listlc ridge. They ran to oul
group to SEQ what the matter was; and
when they saw the bird, Lords second
said:
That vas splendcd shot. How
far off was it,"
Steve said, with some Indifference
ooh no great distance. About thirty
PAGES"
Thirty PAGES! Heavens alive, whc
did it?"
MY man-Twain."
THE mischief he did! Can he dc