I do not suppose I hit anything; I never knew a man who did hit a cat, even when he could see it, except, maybe, by accident when aiming at something else.

I have known crack shots, winners of Queen's prizes--those sort of men,--shoot with shot-guns at cats fifty yards away, and never hit a hair.

I have often thought that, instead of bull's-eyes, running deer, and that rubbish, the really superior marksman would be he who could boast that he had shot the cat.
But, anyhow, they moved off; maybe the egg annoyed them.

I had noticed when I picked it up that it did not look a good egg; and I went back to bed again, thinking the incident closed.

Ten minutes afterwards there came a violent ringing of the electric bell.