"All right," she said, "I know about guns. My father used to shoot and
I often cleaned his gun," and she took the weapon up and began to
examine the engraving on the locks.
"What is this?" she said, pointing to a little slide above the locks
on which the word "safe" was engraved in gold letters.
"Oh, that's the safety bolt," he said. "When you see the word 'safe,'
the locks are barred and the gun won't go off. You have to push the
bolt forward before you can fire."
"So?" she said carelessly, and suiting the action to the word.
"Yes, so, but please be careful, the gun is loaded."
"Yes, I'll be careful," she answered. "Well, it is a very pretty gun,
and so light that I believe I could shoot with it myself."
Meanwhile Edward Cossey and Mr. Quest, who were walking up the garden,
had separated, Mr. Quest going to the right across the lawn to pick up
a glove which had dropped upon the grass, while Edward Cossey slowly
sauntered towards them. When he was about nine paces off he too halted
and, stooping a little, looked abstractedly at a white Japanese
chrysanthemum which was still in bloom. Mrs. Quest turned, as the
Colonel thought, to put the gun back against the wall. He would have
offered to take it from her but at the moment both his hands were
occupied in extracting one of the "painters" from a snipe.
Pages:
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335