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As a politician he shows how the insurgents have placed themselves in a false position by adopting extreme measures and alienating republican sympathy, being cautious and diplomatic in not censuring their persons nor their principles; on the other side there is a marked effort to emphasize the professional attitude; as a military man he explains the strategic weakness of their position, and the futility of their operations, uttering many sententious phrases: "Self-conceit is the worst adviser"; "Good four-and eight-pound cannon are as effective for field work as pieces of larger caliber, and are in many respects preferable to them"; "It is an axiom of military science that the army which remains behind its intrenchments is beaten: experience and theory agree on this point."
Every third day he went back in to Benton with his catch, which he had kept packed in snow, sold them at the market, and was fairly rolling in wealth; and when, one afternoon, he hooked and landed an eight-pound fish, and travelled to town with it, and saw it set up in the market, with a sign on it to the effect that it had been caught by Timothy Reardon of Benton, he was the proudest boy to be found anywhere.
The white place was surrounded by a sparkling radiance. Andy caught up an eight-pound hammer, and it rose and fell lightly in his hand. The sparks rushed against the leather apron of the hammer wielder, and as the blows fell rapid waves of light were thrown against the face of Andrew. Looking at that face one wondered how the life work of Jasper was such a failure.
The season of 1918 we hooked about fifty bonefish on three-six tackles that is, three-ounce tips and six-thread lines and we landed fourteen of them. I caught nine and R. C. caught five. R. C.'s eight-pound fish justified our contention and crowned our efforts. To date, in all my experience, I consider this bonefish achievement the most thrilling, fascinating, difficult, and instructive.
Yet even at that he was a better man than Meacham, who had laid down like a yellow dog. Denver remembered that too and when he found his man he told him they were due to win. Then he borrowed some drills and a pair of eight-pound hammers and they went through a try-out together.
I therefore directed a couple of rockets through the corn. The rush of these unknown projectiles produced a great effect, as they burst through the stockade, and buzzed and whizzed about the huts within the defence. An eight-pound shell from the gun now crashed through the stockade and went howling along through the dense fields of dhurra, until it exploded about 500 yards in the rear.
"Now!" came the order at length, and a couple of eight-pound balls flew straight to the Frenchman. "Well hit!" shouted the Englishmen, as a shower of splinters was seen to fly upwards from the enemy's deck. "It's enough to show 'em we've got mettle in us," growled the old captain, "and that's all we can say."
The gun-carriage ran easily over the flat ground, and we advanced rapidly forward, the Baris clearing out of their villages and gathering on our flanks as we approached. A shot from the gun sent an eight-pound shell which exploded in the air above a group about 700 yards distant. This was sufficient notice to quit.
Not a long interval no more, say, than the space required for the lash of a snapping blacksnake to flick back on itself but in that interim the hands of Andy were buried in the throat of his victim. His fingers, accustomed to the sway and quiver of eight-pound hammers and fourteen-pound sledges, sank through the flesh and found the windpipe.
There was one twelve-pound, and three or four eight-pound cannon on board the steamer. At every village which was passed, the banks would be crowded with the astounded natives. Mischievously, the captain would order all the cannon to be simultaneously discharged. The effect upon the terrified savages was ludicrous in the extreme. They were all thrown into utter consternation.
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