"They're only tryin' to spile a can," Jenks reassured. "By golly, we'll go over and l'arn 'em a lesson." He glanced at me. "Time you loosened up that weepon o' yourn, anyhow. Purty soon it'll stick fast." I arose with him, glad of any diversion. The circle had not yet formed at Hyrum's fire. "It strikes me as a useless piece of baggage," said I. "I bought it in Benton but I haven't needed it. I can kill a rattlesnake easier with my whip." "Wall," he drawled, "down in yonder you're liable to meet up with a rattler too smart for your whip, account of his freckles. 'Twon't do you no harm to spend a few ca'tridges, so you'll be ready for business." The men were banging, by turn, at a sardine can set up on the sand about twenty paces out. Their shadows stretched slantwise before them, grotesquely lengthened by the last efforts of the disappearing sun. Some aimed carefully from under pulled-down hat brims; others, their brims flared back, fired quickly, the instant the gun came to the level. The heavy balls sent the loose soil flying in thick jets made golden by the evening glow. But amidst the furrows the can sat untouched by the plunging missiles. We were greeted with hearty banter. "Hyar's the champeens!" "Now they'll show us." "Ain't never see that pilgrim unlimber his gun yit, but I reckon he's a bad 'un." "Jenks, old hoss, cain't you l'an that durned can manners?" "I'll try to oblige you, boys," friend Jenks smiled. "What you thinkin' to do: hit that can or plant a lead mine?" "Give him room. He's made his brag," they cried. "And if he don't plug it that pilgrim sure will." Mr. Jenks drew and took his stand; banged with small preparation and missed by six inches--a fact that brought him up wide awake, so to speak, badgered by derision renewed. A person needs must have a bull hide, to travel with a bull train, I saw. "Gimme another, boys, and I'll hit it in the nose," he growled sheepishly; but they shoved him aside. "No, no. Pilgrim's turn. Fetch on yore shootin'-iron, young feller. Thar's yore turkey. Show us why you're packin' all that hardware." Willy-nilly I had to demonstrate my greenness; so in all good nature I drew, and stood, and cocked, and aimed. The Colt's exploded with prodigious blast and wrench--jerking, in fact, almost above head; and where the bullet went I did not see, nor, I judged, did anybody else. "He missed the 'arth!" they clamored. "No; I reckon he hit Montany 'bout the middle. That's whar he scored center!" "Shoot! Shoot!" they begged. "Go ahead. Mebbe you'll kill an Injun unbeknownst. They's a pack o' Sioux jest out o' sight behind them hills." And I did shoot, vexed; and I struck the ground, this time, some fifty yards beyond the can. Jenks stepped from amidst the riotous laughter.