"Sneaks! Can't shoot!" roared Shorty. "I kin outshoot you or any other man in Jeff Davis's kingdom. I dare you to come out from behind your tree, and take a shot with me in the open, accordin' to Hardee's tactics. Your gun's empty; so's mine. My chum here'll see fair play; and you kin bring your chum with you. Come out, you skulkin' brindle pup, and shoot man fashion, if you dare."{140} "Ye can't dare me, ye nigger-stealin' blue-belly," shouted the rebel in return, coming out from behind his tree. Shorty climbed over the fence and stood at the edge of the road, with his gun at order arms. Si came out on Shorty's left, and a rebel appeared to the right of the first. For a minute all stood in expectancy. Then Shorty spoke: "I want nuthin' but what's fair. Your gun's empty; so's mine. You probably know Hardee's tactics as well as I do." "I'm up in Hardee," said the rebel with a firm voice. "Well, then," continued Shorty, "let my chum here call off the orders for loadin' and firin', and we'll both go through 'em, and shoot at the word." "Go ahead--I'm agreed," said the rebel briefly. Shorty nodded to Si. "Carry arms," commanded Si. Both brought their guns up to their right sides. "Present arms." Both courteously saluted. "Load in nine times--Load," ordered Si. Both guns came down at the same instant, each man grasped his muzzle with his left hand, and reached for his cartridge-box, awaiting the next order. "Handle cartridges." "Tear cartridges." "Charge cartridges," repeated Si slowly and distinctly. The rebel's second nodded approval of his knowledge of the drill, and sang out: "Good soldiers, all of yo'uns." "Draw rammer," continued Si,{141} "Turn rammer." "Ram cartridge." Shorty punctiliously executed the three blows on the cartridge exacted by the regulations, and paused a breath for the next word. The rebel had sent his cartridge home with one strong thrust, but he saw his opponent's act and waited. "Return rammer," commanded Si. He was getting a little nervous, but Shorty deliberately withdrew his rammer, turned it, placed one end in the thimbles, deliberately covered the head with his little finger, exactly as the tactics prescribed, and sent it home with a single movement. The rebel had a little trouble in returning rammer, and Shorty and Si waited. "Cast about," "Prime!" Both men capped at the same instant. "Ready!" Shorty cocked his piece and glanced at the rebel, whose gun was at his side. "Aim!" Both guns came up like a flash. [Illustration: THE DUEL. 139] Si's heart began thumping at a terrible rate. He was far more alarmed about Shorty than he had ever been about himself. Up to this moment he had hoped that Shorty's coolness and deliberation would "rattle" the rebel and make him fire wildly. But the latter, as Si expressed it afterward, "seemed to be made of mighty good stuff," and it looked as if both would be shot down. "Fire!" shouted Si, with a perceptible tremor in his voice.{142}