A garter of white cowrie shells encircled one leg just below the knee.

A flaming scarlet flower was coquettishly stuck over one ear, and through a hole in the other ear was threaded a pig's tail so recently severed that it still bled.
As this dandy of Melanesia leaped into the sunshine, the Snider rifle in his hands came into position, aimed from his hip, the generous muzzle bearing directly on Van Horn.

No less quick was Van Horn.

With equal speed he had snatched his rifle and brought it to bear from his hip.

So they stood and faced each other, death in their finger-tips, forty feet apart.