When the arrow stopped, half its length protruded from the
opposite side of a six-inch tree fifty feet away. Al-tan and his
warriors turned toward me with expressions of immense satisfaction
upon their faces, and then, apparently for Ajor's benefit, the
chieftain swaggered to and fro a couple of times, swinging his
great arms and his bulky shoulders for all the world like a drunken
prize-fighter at a beach dancehall.
I saw that some reply was necessary, and so in a single motion,
I drew my gun, dropped it on the still quivering arrow and pulled
the trigger. At the sound of the report, the Kro-lu leaped back
and raised their weapons; but as I was smiling, they took heart
and lowered them again, following my eyes to the tree; the shaft
of their chief was gone, and through the bole was a little round
hole marking the path of my bullet. It was a good shot if I do
say it myself, "as shouldn't" but necessity must have guided that
bullet; I simply had to make a good shot, that I might immediately
establish my position among those savage and warlike Caspakians of the
sixth sphere. That it had its effect was immediately noticeable,
but I am none too sure that it helped my cause with Al-tan.
Whereas he might have condescended to tolerate me as a harmless
and interesting curiosity, he now, by the change in his expression,
appeared to consider me in a new and unfavorable light.
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