This is about standard for this type of "adventure". Compare the description of what Jimmy Dale does with Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op or Sam Spade:a man who skirts, or breaks, the law for the higher good. Frank Packard was a popular author for many years.

Leo: there was an "automatic revolver", the Webley-Fosdick [I believe] It looked like s Webley revolver, but the barrel and cylinder slid on the grip and firing mechanism; the cylinder had a zigzag track cut into it to make it turn as it recoiled.