And, as he sprang, he fired again.

Then several things happened.
Everyone, except movie actors and newly-appointed policemen, knows that a man on foot cannot shoot straight, unless he is standing stock still.
Yet, as luck would have it, this second shot found a mark where the first and better aimed bullet had gone wild.
Lad had leaped the narrow and deep ditch left along the lawn-edge by workers who were putting in a new water-main for the Place.

On the far side of this obstacle he had stopped, and had waited for his friend to follow.

But the friend had not followed.

Instead, he had been somehow responsible for a spurt of red flame and for a most thrilling racket.
Lad was more impressed than ever by the man's wondrous possibilities as a midnight entertainer.