No Belgian race or horse-show can begin till a veterinary is present with this instrument, to be used in case of accident.

One can do very little to alleviate the torture of a horse standing with a broken leg, or lying with a broken back in the London streets, owing to the regulations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 18. THE GREENER KILLER

This ill.u.s.tration clearly shows the position in which the Killer should be placed. It is advisable to have the barrel in a line with the pith, but so long as the "medulla" is pierced, instantaneous death is a.s.sured.]

Thrice, within a few months, I have stood by a horse for hours unable to do anything for it, but to put a rug over it as it was shivering so from the cold (having been injured when in a profuse sweat), and moisten its mouth.

I was not allowed to kill the horse, only a licensed slaughterer is allowed to do that, and then only if the owner can be found, and gives his consent for the horse to be killed.

I have since seen one of the princ.i.p.al horse-slaughterers of London and got his telephone number, and arranged with him to send immediately to any part of London, at any time of the day or night, if I telephone to him.

But even then if we cannot communicate with the owner of the horse we will have to stand doing nothing, possibly for hours, beside the suffering animal.

The poor old worn-out, half-starved horses in London are not only worked to death, but when injured, they are not even allowed to die, without further torture.

There is another form of humane killer which I am not able to endorse, although the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seem to think highly of it.

I refer to the instrument which consists of a pistol fixed at right angles to a pole called, I believe, the Humane Killer.

The pistol is fired by pulling a wire which runs down the pole to the hand.

I consider this instrument very dangerous to use for slaughtering animals but it would be very useful in trench warfare.

An ordinary firearm is dangerous enough if it happens to be pointed in the direction of the spectators. But what will be thought of a pistol which, when you carefully keep what corresponds to the barrel (_i. e._, the pole) from pointing at anyone, you find it shoots at right angles to your aim.

Several of us stood round a man demonstrating the operation of this weapon when unloaded. I said to him, "You cannot bring that pistol on to the forehead of that stuffed ox's head without pointing it at one of us during the process."

He was not able to do so. Each time he tried one of us called out, "You are pointing it at me."

I will explain by a.n.a.logy the reason of this difficulty.

Some men, in defiance of the conventions, cut cheese into small cubes, stick their knife into them and convey the cheese into their mouths, without cutting their mouths, and acquire great skill by long practice.

Take a sharp knife-blade, fasten it firmly at right angles to the handle, and ask an expert cheese eater to cut cubes of cheese and transfer them to his mouth with this safety (?) knife. He will cut his mouth before he has eaten half a dozen pieces of cheese.

CHAPTER LX

COMPEt.i.tIONS

The duelling clubs at Gastinne-Renettes' have very practical and interesting compet.i.tions.

These clubs exist for duelling practice, there is no shooting with deliberate aim to make highest possible scores, all is conducted on actual duelling lines.

The word duel means _single combat_, so all these compet.i.tions are conducted in pairs, the winners again competing in pairs and so on till finally only one remains, as in c.o.c.k-fighting.

Each partic.i.p.ant in such a pool, when putting down his name, pays a nominal sum which goes to provide a medal for the winner.

In order that each compet.i.tor shall compete against each other compet.i.tor, there are printed scoring-cards on the lines of longitude and lat.i.tude in maps, so that by running the finger down the list of names and then at right angles down the s.p.a.ces for results, it can instantly be seen when any particular pair must compete and at which target each will stand.

Each compet.i.tor alternately stands to the right or to the left of whoever is his opponent.

Only the pistols supplied by the range are allowed to be used, and these are given so that each shooter uses each pistol in turn and as all are purposely varied as to trigger-pull it requires a really good shot to win.

He never knows if he is going to have a light or heavy trigger-pull.

This is the chief difficulty in these compet.i.tions, as also in actual duels. When a pair of compet.i.tors are each facing a separate man target, the director of the combat gives the word "Attention, feu, un, deux, trois."

If they both hit anywhere on the figure, the one who fired first is the winner of that pair.

It is usual to have a timer, to decide who fired first.

The director cannot fulfil both offices effectually.

After all have fired in pairs, each with each of the other compet.i.tors, the totals are added up and the one who has won the most combats is the winner of the medal.

If two or more have an equal score then these again shoot against each other to decide the winner of the medal.

It is not good scoring but quick hitting which wins.

A good hit counts no more than a bad one; a hit in faster time than the other shot, wins.

Winners are not the same men who win at deliberate shooting. Target shots seldom win, it is the lightning quick shot who wins, even if he cannot hit a smaller target than one eighteen inches broad by five feet high.

The whole art of this shooting is to be able to keep from missing by more than three inches either side of your aim, not caring what your trigger-pull is, or how it varies for each shot.

As to elevation, that needs no attention; you cannot miss over or under a five-foot target.

Bring up at top speed putting all the attention on not jerking to the side should your trigger-pull happen to be one of the heavy ones; aim slightly more to the right than the actual centre of the figure to allow for an occasional pull to the left with an extra heavy trigger-pull.

It is the very hard pulling pistols which give almost all the misses.

Men in constant practice in such compet.i.tions are in the best training for a duel or for self-protection.

With Clubs which use the Devilliers bullet the compet.i.tions are conducted on exactly similar lines, except that the compet.i.tors fire at each other instead of at iron targets.

Theoretically this is even better practice. It gets a man used to seeing his adversary actually before him and being able to study his movements and note if he is active, and try to be a shade the quicker of the two.

The inaccuracy of the Devilliers bullet as compared to the lead bullet (with a powder charge) is a great disadvantage.

You feel that there is an element of fluke in the shooting. You may make a very good shot and the bullet being too soft or the barrel too hot that bullet does not take the rifling properly and gives you an unmerited miss.

Seeing your adversary raise his arm as you do yours and trying to antic.i.p.ate his let-off by hitting him before he can hit you, is the great advantage of the Devilliers bullet as training for a duel.

In snapping practice with an empty pistol, it is well to practice facing your reflection in a mirror to get used to the adversary's arm rising.