A FATAL SHOT

Wairoa Bell, Volume IV, Issue 148, 3 June 1892, Page 6

A FATAL SHOT

‘ Ben, whose boy ’re you ? ’ The voice was thick and husk/. • Your’ n, dad, ’ ‘ An’ who’s the best shot in these parts, Ben ? Tell these fellers. ’ The man's dull eyes fixed themselyes on the boy. The little fellow’s face lightened up, and he answered looking around defiantly ‘ My dad’s the best shot in Montanny.’

A silence fell over the crowd and something of pride gleamed from the whiskydimmed eyes of old Billman. Then he said, handing the boy an apple : ‘ These fellers ’low I’m no good, Ben, an’ I’m jest goin’ to do our Willyum Tell act an’ show ’em that Jim Billman kin draw as fine a head now as ever he could.’

Billman patted his son’s head with a trembling hand, and the boy drew himself up proudly as he took the apple from his father.

‘ Go over to that tree, Ben,’ commanded Billman, at last, and the boy walked with a fearless step to the place indicated, turned his back to the tree, removed his hat and balanced the apple on his head, then placed his hands behind him. There was not a quiver in his face, not a shadow of fear. His father,whom he loved and who loved him, was the marksman.

Old Billman raised his gun to his shoulder. The weapon shook in his nerveless hands like a reed. Uttering an implication he lowered the gun and brushed his sleeve across his eyes. Then he tried again, but still without success.

‘ I know what’s the matter,’ he muttered, and took a drink from a bottle in his pocket. ‘ Now, then, all right, Ben ? ’ ‘ All right, dad.’ A shoit moment the gun trembled in Billman’s hand and then— Sping ! It was a strange, dull sound, not like the crash of a bullet through oak, but more like— Great God! the smoke had cleared away and the boy was lying in a lifeless heap upon the ground—killed by his drunken father ! A cry as of a wild beast, a rush, and old Billman had the bloody form iti his arms. ‘ Kill me ! ’ shrieked the old man, rocking to and fro, ‘ kill me ! ’ but the miners passed silently away one by one, and left the wretched man alone with his grief and his load.