

Stevens' repeater fires jive bolts without reloading. 



Oldest New Weapon 



by Robert M. Hyatt . . . photographs by John Blundell 



THERE was once a romantic episode of the Middle Ages, in 

 which by night you swam the moat surrounding the dark 

 castle. The princess lowered a rope from her prison in the grim 

 stone tower. You climbed the rope, your crossbow slung at your 

 back. On the parapet stood the sentinel, armed and menacing. 

 He started toward you with drawn sword, or he brandished some- 

 thing called a mace. But with your crossbow you coolly aimed. 

 You loosed the bolt, and the bowstring twanged, and the bolt 

 went "blup" as it pierced the sentinel's leathern jacket. Calmly 

 you hurled the body over the parapet. As it splashed in the 



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