Free Kill Dusty Fog by J. T. Edson Page B

done faster that way than when kneeling or prone, the second Zouave went about it with trained speed. Clearly he was a veteran, fully capable of making the best time possible at the tedious business of recharging the obsolete, muzzle-loading Springfield rifle. Already he had withdrawn a paper cartridge from his belt-pouch, torn open its base with his teeth, poured the powder into the barrel, used the covering as a wad and thrust the round ball into the muzzle. Resting the cup-shaped end of the ramrod on to the ball, he drove it to the bottom of the barrel. No less speedily he removed the rod, dropping it once clear of the muzzle, and drew back the hammer to half cock.
    Although black powder fouled badly when discharged, firing one bullet did not build up sufficient residue to make thrusting home the next round a difficult process. So in slightly less than twenty seconds after missing Prince, the Zouave was ready to fit a percussion cap on the nipple and try again.
    Unfortunately Prince held one of the weapons which rapidly wrote a finish to the cheap-to-produce, easy-to-maintain muzzle-loading rifles with which both sides had been armed at the start of the War.
    While turning, Prince had shoved forward the Sharps’ trigger-guard. This in turn caused the breech block to descend into its loading position. Like the rifle, the carbine fired a non-metallic cartridge; but he did not have to bite it open. Slipping the bullet into the chamber, he returned the triggerguard to its normal place. As it closed, the knife-edge of the breech block sheared through the linen base of the cartridge. Nor did he need to fumble with percussion caps.
    The Maynard-primer, which looked like and acted in the manner of a child’s roller-cap pistol, had failed to meet the stringent demands of war. Amongst its other faults, the allegedly waterproof coating had allowed the patches of fulminate to become damp and inoperative. So the United States Army had gone back to the slower, but more certain, individual copper cap for the Springfield. The Sharps used the simple, effective Lawrence disc-primer. Operated by a spring-fed magazine built into the frame, the primer fed percussion discs on to the nipple of the carbine’s breech and utilized the falling hammer to place them there as well as igniting the fulminate. In that way, the Lawrence primer did away with capping by hand and increased the Sharps’ rate of fire.
    Making a snap alignment of the sights, Prince squeezed the trigger. The .52 calibre Sharps bullet tore into the Zouave as he was taking a percussion cap from its box. Twisting around, he fell back out of the Texan’s sight.
    Hayley set his sights on the number-six man as he lifted a round of canister from the limber of the gun on the right of the battery. Engrossed in his work, the Texan forgot to stay alert. As his carbine cracked, three rifles banged like an echo. All three bullets found their billet in Hayley’s body and he died without witnessing the excellent result of his last shot. The short-barrelled Sharps carbine lacked the extreme long-range accuracy of the Company’s excellent rifles. At ranges of around three hundred yards, the impact point of the bullet might vary by several inches no matter how carefully it had been aimed. Flying down the slope, Hayley’s lead ploughed through the round’s paper covering and into the serge bag of black powder. Ignited by the heat of the bullet, the two-and-a-half pound charge exploded. Caught in the blast, the remaining charges in the limber detonated. The numbers five, six and seven crew members disappeared in a flash of raging light and roar of sound. Flung from their feet, the remainder of the gun’s crew and of the neighbouring piece stayed down until sure that there would be no sympathetic explosion from the next limber’s chest.
    After shooting Hayley, the three Zouaves hurled themselves into the nearest cover. They had seen enough of the Texans’ deadly shooting not to risk