Sharpshooter

People from the bush and particularly people from up North are seasoned deer hunters. They shoot them with rifles and often when the deer is running. They seldom miss. They would hate to miss since they find rifle cartridges always too expensive and not easy to get.

This was a long time ago. Ouegoa village, near the Diahot river, was still quite isolated. There was no road to reach it. To get there one had to go horse riding, by boat, or by foot.

Among the few families living in this northern peninsula, North of Ouegoa, one was in turmoil. One of their daughters had ran away with their young neighbor (nearby 5 miles away), she was the prettiest!

Despite a much strained relationship with their neighbour, no problem was reported for a while. One day, more confident now, the young neighbour went again to catch crabs not far away from the property of his sweetheart's father. While he was walking along the mangrove, a rifle reported. He felt the bullet whistling extremely close to his backside.

Naturally chocked he ran to Ouegoa at the gendarme's office. He then charged his sweetheart's father to have tried to kill him. The gendarme was a young man new in his position and still unexperienced. However with courage and zeal he went fast to the supposedly willing murderer's house. As a precaution, since his predecessor had warned him that these people from the bush can be trigger happy, he took his dog with him, a superb german shepherd, well trained to police assistance.

He was well received, but the father denied strongly to have attempted any murder. He said to the gendarme :
- It is impossible because if I had shot, the man would be dead by now, I never miss.
The gendarme replied:
- Monsieur, don't try to fool me, I checked, the young man was at are more than 400 metres from your place. At such distance nobody can be sure to never miss.
The father answered :
- I am not going to argue on this point, since you don't believe me. Would you take your dog to the fence which crosses the salted swamp, near the mangrove trees? Distance to this point is more than 400 yards and your dog is smaller than a man.

Confident in his knowledge of rifles and distances the gendarme accepted the challenge. He placed his dog by the said fence.

The charge was dropped.

The gendarme mourned his faithful dog for a long time.

People from the bush are peaceful citizens but they are sometimes a little bit skin-thin and they are often sharpshooters!