He was overwhelmed with astonishment.

Why, after the shooting began he had not so much as seen Delaney with any degree of plainness.

The whole affair was a whirl.
"Well, where did YOU learn to shoot THAT way ?" some one in the crowd demanded.

Annixter moved his shoulders with a gesture of vast unconcern.
"Oh," he observed carelessly, "it's not my SHOOTING that ever worried ME, m'son." The crowd gaped with delight.

There was a great wagging of heads.
"Well, I guess not." "No, sir, not much." "Ah, no, you bet not." When the women pressed around him, shaking his hands, declaring that he had saved their daughters' lives, Annixter assumed a pose of superb deprecation, the modest self-obliteration of the chevalier.