Nothing. 12 Shooters out of 41 would go on and nearly every man there had come in a pair. A shooter and a spotter with a glass the way it is done. Lane 12 had Anna lying flat in the grass with her hat off and nobody within 30 ft of her. Ernest had a speaking trumpet and he used it.
He welcomed the territory to his match and he was funny and the crowd liked him because there was nothing yet to dislike. And down at the far end of the line, Ernest said, "We have got a lady, so let's everybody mind our language this morning, and if anybody's got a spare pillow, lane 12 could use it." 200 people laughed at once, and it carried across the flat, and Anna lay in the grass with her cheek against her husband's rifle and did not turn her head. A boy chocked the scores on a board as they came back from the pits. Carl Duncan, a stockman off Pumpkin Creek who had been shooting matches in that country for 12 years, put up a 48. Ernest shot a 50 and stood up off the mat and dusted his knees and did not look at the board, which is a thing a man does only when he is very sure of the board.
Then Otis called Lane 12. He walked down to her first and cleared his throat. You want a glass on you? I can get a pit boy up here. No, it's allowed.
I know it's allowed. He waited. She did not offer anything else. He went back up the line. Lane 12.
Ready on the right. Ready on the left. He raised the flag. Fire. Anna Lambert let her breath out.
There is a thing that happens to a good shooter in the half second before the trigger breaks where the whole body goes quiet at once and it does not look like effort. It looks like sleep. That is what 200 people saw from a 100 yard away. And what they thought they were seeing was a woman who did not know how to start. The rifle went off.
The steel rang. It is a particular sound. A heavy plate taking a heavy bullet dead in the middle. And every man there had been listening to it all morning and knew what it meant before the pit flag went up. Center 10.
The laughing stopped. Not gradually. It stopped the way a lamp goes out. The second shot came 11 seconds after the first center. The third center.