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Early on 1st January 1915, the two-man army packed into the ice-chest a Snider-Enfield, which Gool had bought for £5, and a Martini-Henry breech-loader with a long steel barrel.

Introduced in 1865, the Purdey Express is a breech-loader, a design that allowed for much more powerful charges than earlier black powder muzzle-loading rifles, sometimes called Four Bores.

The breech-loader was taken down and stored in the library for an aggravated occasion.

Against close bodies of men the breech-loader will do wonders.

Let us examine one of the guns, a breech-loader, and see what improvements have been made which may conduce to rapidity of fire.