The can was arrested in the first foot of its descent by the shock of the first bullet striking it.

It jumped up and out and again began its interrupted fall, only to stop dead still in the air as another bullet struck it.

There was an infinitesimal pause, and then twice more the can shivered and jumped.
No man in the crowd but could tell that the bullets were striking true.
The can was still ten feet in the air and well out from the stranger.
The latter whipped his weapon to a level, the bullet striking the can and driving it twenty feet from him.

Then it dropped.

But when it was within five feet of the ground the stranger's gun spoke again.