Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Short stories
shirt of his adversary. He stepped out at once between the trunks,
exposing himself freely; then, quick as lightning, leaped back. It had
been a risky move but it succeeded in its object. Almost simultaneously
with the pop of a shot a small piece of bark chipped off by the bullet
stung his ear painfully.
</p>
<p>
General Feraud, with one shot expended, was getting cautious. Peeping
round the tree, General D’Hubert could not see him at all. This ignorance
of the foe’s whereabouts carried with it a sense of insecurity. General
D’Hubert felt himself abominably exposed on his flank and rear. Again
something white fluttered in his sight. Ha! The enemy was still on his
front, then. He had feared a turning movement. But apparently General
Feraud was not thinking of it. General D’Hubert saw him pass without
special haste from one tree to another in the straight line of approach.
With great firmness of mind General D’Hubert stayed his hand. Too far yet.
He knew he was no marksman. His must be a waiting game—to kill.
</p>
<p>
Wishing to take advantage of the greater thickness of the trunk, he sank
down to the ground. Extended at full length, head on to his enemy, he had
his person completely protected. Exposing himself would not do now,
because the other was too near by this time. A conviction that Feraud
would presently do something rash was like balm to General D’Hubert’s
soul. But to keep his chin raised off the ground was irksome, and not much
use either. He peeped round, exposing a fraction of his head with dread,
but really with little risk. His enemy, as a matter of fact, did not
expect to see anything of him so far down as that. General D’Hubert caught
a fleeting view of General Feraud shifting trees again with deliberate
caution. “He despises my shooting,” he thought, displaying that insight
into the mind of his antagonist which is of such great help in winning
battles. He was confirmed in his tactics of immobility. “If I could only
watch my rear as well as my front!” he thought anxiously, longing for the
impossible.
</p>
<p>
It required some force of character to lay his pistols down; but, on a
sudden impulse, General D’Hubert did this very gently—one on each
side of him. In the army he had been looked upon as a bit of a dandy
because he used to shave and put on a clean shirt on the days of battle.
As a matter of fact, he had always been very careful of his personal
appearance. In a man of nearly forty, in love with a young and charming
girl, this praiseworthy self-respect may run to such little weaknesses as,
for instance, being provided with an elegant little leather folding-case
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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