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"Let it fall, then," shouted Andrea, running down the cliff with incredible rapidity. "Here I am!" "You're too late!" exclaimed the magistrate. "I have never been too late yet!" replied Andrea; went to the shooting-range, raised his rifle six times to his cheek, and each time hit the bull's-eye.
The clearing was long and slender, such a glade through the trees as the alley of the mountain bowlers which Rip Van Winkle found in the Catskills only the shooting-range was longer. A hundred and fifty yards were needed for one of the contests. This aisle had been cut through a forest of gray beech and brown oaks.
On a wooded slope alongside of our shooting-range there was a small piece of ground which had been cleared of wood, and which made an ideal halting-place; from it one could get a view of the Rhine over the tops of the trees and the brushwood, so that the beautiful, undulating lines of the Seven Mountains and above all of the Drachenfels bounded the horizon against the group of trees, while in the centre of the bow formed by the glistening Rhine itself the island of Nonnenwörth stood out as if suspended in the river's arms.
This explanation only succeeded in perturbing us the more; for we saw a danger threatening us which was even greater than the loss of our shooting-range, and we asked eagerly, "Where is this quiet spot? Surely not to the left here, in the wood?" "That is the very place." "But this evening that place belongs to us," my friend interposed. "We must have it," we cried together.
This literary pose is due to the fact that records are about to be taken of the performances of the Company on the shooting-range. A half-awakened subaltern, who breakfasted at the grisly hour of a quarter-to-six, takes command, and the dolorous procession disappears into the gloom. Half an hour later the Battalion parades, and sets off, to the sound of music, in pursuit.
As a matter of fact, we did not know what to make of the whole matter; we could not understand what our noisy pastimes could have in common with philosophy; nor could we see why, out of regard for polite scruples, we should abandon our shooting-range, and at this moment we may have appeared somewhat undecided and perturbed.
It requires, in order to attain its specific effect against rifle-pits, such accurate aiming as is very seldom possible in actual warfare. No very great value should be attached to firing with shrapnel. It seems to be retained in France and to have shown satisfactory results with us; but care must be taken not to apply the experiences of the shooting-range directly to serious warfare.
When this performance was over the guests were conducted to an open space behind the cherry-grove, where a little shooting-range had been set up, with a target, air-guns and boxes of lead lugs. Geoffrey, of course, joined in the shooting-competition, and won a handsome cigarette case inlaid with Damascene work.
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