chapter 5

 A great crowd assembled at the picnic-ground. The three men specially¹ invited were sitting under a tree, smoking and waiting. The showman came promptly³ on time, and shook hands with the three, but did not offer to tell his name.

“Whut name does dey call you by?” Vinegar asked.

“I ain’t got no name,” the negro grinned.

“Dat’s strange!” Vinegar muttered. “I’ll call you Stranger, fer shawt.”

Stranger carried a heavy sack, and he now untied⁴ the top and poured the contents upon the ground. There were two or three dozen marbles, such as children use in their games; there were a dozen or more small apples, about a dozen empty pop-bottles, and several dozen tops of small tin cans.

“I’s a pistol-shooter,” the stranger announced. “Ef you misdoubts my confession⁵, jes’ take a look.”

He tossed an apple above his head; quickly he tossed two more, juggling⁶ them in the air. Suddenly from somewhere he drew a big pistol, shot three times with startling quickness, and the shattered apples dropped at his feet.

There are men who are born with the strange gift of demonstrating that the hand is quicker than the eye. In civilized⁷ sections of the country men so gifted are sleight-of-hand performers; in other sections, less civilized, they become card-sharps, with the ability to “pitch a good game” and deal themselves cards from the bottom of the deck; in still other sections, they become expert gunmen whose skill as marksmen is a wonder to behold⁸.

The Tickfall crowd stood breathlessly watching the juggler⁹ of bottles, apples, marbles. He tossed pop-bottles in the air, and while they were spinning he shot through the neck of the bottle and broke the bottom to pieces without injuring the neck. He threw up the tin tops of the pop-bottles, and unerringly shot through the center of each. He tossed the apples into the air, and shattered them with bullets. He threw marbles three at a time above his head, and they came down in dust.

There was one man on whom this exhibition made a deep impression. Shin Bone had bragged¹⁰ his brags¹¹ about chasing that very darky out of town by shooting at him and throwing rocks. He now abandoned his idea. That was certainly not the way to rid Tickfall of the presence of the dangerous stranger.

When the exhibition was over, the stranger turned to the three men who were especially invited and said:

“I’m much obleeged to you niggers fer comin’ out to de show. I would like to walk back to town wid you-alls, but I ain’t gwine dat way.”

“You shore is a shooter, brudder!” Skeeter exclaimed. “Ef you ain’t gwine our way, us’ll see you later.”

As the three walked back to town, Shin said thoughtfully:

“Skeeter, I think you wus right when you said not to hab no shootin’ scrape about Whiffle. De way I feels now, ef dat Stranger nigger is gwine shoot fer my wife, he kin² jes’ take her along ’thout no good objections from me!”

1 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

2 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

3 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

4 untied   

松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决

参考例句：

• Once untied, we common people are able to conquer nature, too. 只要团结起来，我们老百姓也能移山倒海。
• He untied the ropes. 他解开了绳子。

5 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

6 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。

7 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

8 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

9 juggler   

n. 变戏法者, 行骗者

参考例句：

• Dick was a juggler, who threw mists before your eyes. 迪克是个骗子，他在你面前故弄玄虚。
• The juggler juggled three bottles. 这个玩杂耍的人可同时抛接3个瓶子。

10 bragged   

v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He bragged to his friends about the crime. 他向朋友炫耀他的罪行。
• Mary bragged that she could run faster than Jack. 玛丽夸口说她比杰克跑得快。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 brags   

v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He constantly brags about how well he plays football. 他老是吹嘘自己足球踢得多么好。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• \"I don't care to listen to your brags.\" \"我没有兴趣听你吹了！ 来自飘（部分）