I emptied his revolver and fitted in blanks from my own box.

Then I took about twenty cartridges out of Peter's belt and replaced them with blanks." "Do you mean to tell me," broke in Rutter, "that Bad Pete, when he turned his revolver loose on you, was shooting nothing but blanks ?" "That was all he had to shoot," Tom returned coolly.

"And blanks were all he had in his belt to reload with.

Don't you remember when we heard him making a noise up the hillside, and talking in dots and dashes!" "I do," nodded Rutter, looking half dazed.
"That," grinned Reade, "was when he started in to reload?
and discovered that he had nothing on hand but temperance cartridges.
Here-----" Tom began to unload one of his pockets upon the wooden table before the astonished eyes of the others.

There was a mixture of his own blank cartridges with the real ammunition that he had stealthily abstracted from Bad Pete's revolver and belt.
Such a whoop of glee ascended that the head chainman came running from the other nearby mess tent to see what was up.
"Just a little joke among our youngsters, my man," explained Mr.
Thurston.