On Gun Accidents. 371 



lady's head, nor will I say I did not anyhow I fancy if the gun 

 had gone off, the whole charge would have passed through her like 

 a bullet. The explosion of the caps, however, frightened the whole 

 party in the kitchen nearly as much as if the gun had gone off, and 

 boy-like I walked out immensely pleased. But my feelings soon 

 changed, when I began to load in the yard. I rammed down 

 the powder in the left barrel all right, but when I came to the right- 

 hand one I could not apparently get the wadding well down. I 

 drew it, shook out the powder, and then found that the right-hand 

 barrel was loaded - } and it went off directly I tried it again with 

 another cap ! I attribute the first missfire to the powder not being 

 well rammed home, for paper had been used as wadding; but by 

 my ramming down the second charge of powder I had shaken the 

 first charge well down into the chamber. I did not go back into 

 the house, but walked directly to the stable, when the mystery was 

 soon explained. It turned out that the groom, who had ammuni- 

 tion himself, but no gun, had taken my gun early in the morning 

 and loaded it to shoot an " old steernel," as he called it, which fre- 

 quented our pigeon house. These country chaps have an absurd 

 idea that starlings suck the pigeons' eggs, and kill the young birds. 

 He could not, however, get a shot, and set the gun again in the 

 corner without saying a word to anyone, having first taken the pre- 

 caution of removing the cap. This fancied precaution, however, 

 nearly cost a human life, for had the cap been on the gun, I should 

 of course have seen when I took it up that somebody had loaded 

 it, and I should not have attempted any practical joking with it. 

 Now had I shot this woman it would have caused me the regret of 

 a whole life, and, although it might have been quite inadvertently 

 on my part, I should have at least been guilty of wilful homicide, for 

 nothing can excuse a man, who has no wish for the gun to go off, 

 in pointing it deliberately at a fellow-creature, even if he fancies 

 that he is certain in his own mind the gun is not loaded. I 

 felt quite convinced that this gun was unloaded, and yet how I was 

 deceived ! 



One thing certainly is clear, that no mode of ignition can be 



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