Those were the days when almost every man in Virginia City had fought with pistols either impromptu or premeditated duels.
I had been in several, but then mine didn't count. Most of them were of the impromptu kind. Mark hadn't had any yet, and we thought it about time that his baptism took place.
Of course I was selected as Mark's second, and at daybreak I had him up and out for some lessons in pistol practice before meeting Laird.
I set up a board for him to shoot at and Mark would step out, raise that big pistol, and when I would count three he would shut his eyes and pull the trigger.
Of course he didn't hit anything; he did not come anywhere near hitting anything. Just then we heard somebody shooting over in the next ravine. Sam said:
"What's that, Steve?"
"Why," I said, "that's Laud. His seconds are practising him over there."
It didn't make my principal any more cheerful to hear that pistol go off every few seconds over there. Just then I saw a little mud-hen light on some sage-brush about thirty yards away.
"Mark," I said, "let me have that pistol. I'll show you how to shoot."
He handed it to me, and I let go at the bird and shot its head off, clean. About that time Laird and his second came over the ridge to meet us. I saw them coming and handed Mark back the pistol. We were looking at the bird when they came up.
"Who did that?" asked Laird's second.
"Sam," I said.
"How far off was it?"
"Oh, about thirty yards."
"Can he do it again?"
"Of course," I said; "every time. He could do it twice that far."
Laud's second turned to his principal.
"Laird," he said, "you don't want to fight that man. It's just like suicide. You'd better settle this thing, now."
So there was a settlement. Laird took back all he had said; Mark said he really had nothing against Laird-the discussion had been purely journalistic and did not need to be settled in blood. He said that both he and Laird were probably the victims of their friends. I remember one of the things Laird said when his second told him he had better not fight.
"Fight! Hell, no! I am not going to be murdered by that damned desperado."