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Our cartridges were nearly all gone; the cannon had fired its last shot long ago, and having a blank cartridge left, had shot the rammer at a gathering party of the enemy. Just as the Winter sun was going down upon a day of gloom the bugle called us all up on the hillside. Then the Rebels saw for the first time how few there were, and began an almost simultaneous charge all along the line.
I was awakened the next morning by the sound of a hammer. Carson was pulverizing the jug handle. After a hasty breakfast, he buckled on his cartridge belt with a Colt 44-six shooter in his holster, and was soon wading through the snow-drifts down the trail towards Saguache. I watched him through the window until he was lost to view.
When asked how he came to be among the belligerents, having no interest in the matter, he replied, that he was under the impression the troops had orders not to fire on the people, or if they did, it should be with blank cartridge; he was confirmed in this belief by the fact, that the first four or five shots took no effect; but, "at any rate," he added, "when I saw the fun going on, I could not resist the temptation of joining in it."
'It appears that you were playing the fool with her. I don't know why you quarrelled. You took out your revolver and fired point blank. George laughed. 'It's just like these beastly niggers to tell a stupid lie like that. You wouldn't believe them rather than me, would you? After all, my word's worth more than theirs. Alec quietly took from his pocket the case of an exploded cartridge.
A duck flying not a foot above the water swung in an awkward circle and lit with a long furrowing splash not forty feet away. Bobby glanced toward Mr. Kincaid. The latter was gazing at the sky, his hands clasped behind his head. Cautiously Bobby reloaded with the other cartridge, and again thrust the rifle muzzle between the reeds.
"I don't have to leave this dandy ivory cigar-holderr, do I?" Archer interrupted. "We could use it for " "Yes, you do, and we're going to leave that cartridge belt, too, so chuck it," ordered Tom. "If anybody should come up here we don't want 'em to think somebody else was here before 'em.
As suddenly as it started it is transformed into a prong like an immense letter V, projecting in perfect stillness from the grass a hundred yards off. You advance, and the same proceeding is repeated. Jack is obviously deep in guns, and knows the difference in power between a muzzle- and a breech-loader, if he has not ascertained, indeed, what number shot you have in your cartridge.
At six o'clock De la Rey's burghers had seen that their attempt was hopeless, and were in full retreat a retreat which could not be harassed by the victors, whose cavalry had been converted by that hail of bullets into footmen. The repulse had been absolute and complete, for not a man or a cartridge had been taken from the British, but the price paid in killed and wounded was a heavy one.
Smokeless powder, made as I have described, cannot be detonated by a fulminating cap of any size or by any means whatever. A large charge of fulminate of mercury placed inside the cartridge case next the primer will not detonate the powder, it serving only to ignite it and cause it to explode.
His ancient, secondhand cartridge belt with the antiquated revolver he removed from another hook he had never been given enough ammunition to become a shot of any quality and he pushed quickly into the night. The moment he was through the door, the storm caught him in the face a stinging blow, and the rush of snow chilled his skin. That stinging blow steadied to a blast.
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