"Or something was the matter with the sh.e.l.ls!"

"Exactly. That is what I was going to say, if you had let me finish the sentence. No more sh.e.l.ls will be used out of that box. They may have been tampered with, but not by Hodge. I know Hodge! He wouldn't do such a thing."

"I reckon that he is none too good for that, if he had a chance!"

"Hodge is my friend."

"I don't care if he is your friend a dozen times over. That might have killed me, or crippled me for life!"

"If those sh.e.l.ls were tampered with, it was done for my benefit, Badger, and not for yours. Hodge wouldn't put in sh.e.l.ls that would endanger me.

I gave you those sh.e.l.ls out of my own box."

"And Hodge was talking to you, and knew what you meant to do. He could have juggled a fixed-up sh.e.l.l on you."

"We won't talk about it!" said Merriwell, turning away.

"I've a right to think what I please," Badger grumbled, following him.

"He thinks you can beat me shooting. He was afraid I would. I can beat you, and I'd like to do it, to spite Bart Hodge."

"I don't think you are in any condition to do more shooting."

"Oh, I'm all right!" Badger rather snappishly declared, his heart hot against Hodge. "Don't let anything of that kind worry you, Merriwell. I want to shoot at ten double rises against you--ten double rises at unknown angles. You've declared that you haven't tried to shoot. I dare you to give me this trial. The numbness is going out of my arm, and it will soon be all right. And I warn you not to throw away any shots!"

They were near the excited crowd.

"All right, Buckrum!" Merriwell answered. "I'll try you, if you're so anxious!"

"We'll buy sh.e.l.ls here. And that gun----"

"Perhaps you think there was something the matter with the gun?"

"Oh, I'll buy you another gun!" growled Badger.

Frank flushed.

"The impudence of the fellow!" grunted Browning, who overheard the remark. Hodge, who was standing near Browning, heard it, too.

"I wish you'd hit him, Merry!" he panted.

"No doubt you'd like to do that," said Badger. "But I'd advise you not to try."

"Mr. Badger and I are going to shoot at ten double birds," said Frank, pretending not to notice these things. "I will use your gun, Bart."

"And Badger may use mine," said a soph.o.m.ore, who was one of Badger's friends, and had been one of Merriwell's enemies. "But for goodness sake, don't use any more dynamite sh.e.l.ls!"

Merriwell saw that Morton Agnew had come up and was looking earnestly at Badger and at the ruined gun.

"I wonder that Badger doesn't remember that you slipped a 'fixed'

cartridge into a gun for him once," was Frank's thought. "You are at the bottom of this, and your villainy has gone far enough. When I come to strike you I shall strike hard!"

The shattered gun still furnished attraction for many, and Agnew pushed forward to get a close look at it, and to ask questions. Rattleton came up to Merriwell with the box of loaded sh.e.l.ls.

"They are not all just alike, Merry!" he declared. "I have been looking them over. See!"

He took up three of the sh.e.l.ls and exhibited them to Frank. A casual glance would show no difference between them and the other sh.e.l.ls in the box. But a close inspection showed that the bra.s.s did not go up quite so high on the paper.

"I am sure that all the sh.e.l.ls in the box were just alike," said Merry.

"Those were slipped in there. Keep them safe."

"But what if they blow me up?" Rattleton gasped. "I'm afraid of the things. Some of the fellows are saying there was dynamite in the sh.e.l.l that tore up the gun!"

"There is no danger, I think. Take care of them, and see that the other boxes are not tampered with. Watch Morton Agnew."

"Let your bife I'll watch him! And he has been watching me! I caught him at it awhile ago!"

"I think Agnew fixed up some sh.e.l.ls to kill or maim me," said Frank. "No doubt he would give a great deal to get the unused ones away. Look out for him."

Then Merriwell went back to the crowd, where Badger was exhibiting his benumbed arm and hand, and explaining how it felt to have a gun burst in one's fingers.

"Are you ready?" he asked. "I am."

"Yes," Frank answered.

It was strange how the fellows on the shooting-grounds ranged themselves into two companies--the supporters of Merriwell in one knot and the supporters of the Kansan in the other. It was as if an invisible hand had gone through the crowd and separated Merriwell's friends from his foes. About Badger gathered Walter Gordan, Bertrand Defarge, Morton Agnew, Gil Cowles, Mat Mullen, Lib Benson, Newt Billings, Chan Webb, and more of the same sort, a number of them now Merriwell's pretended friends, but all at heart his enemies. While about Merriwell swarmed his friends tried and true, with Hodge, Browning, Diamond, Rattleton, Gamp, Bink, and Dismal close to his person.

"Don't monkey with him," urged Bart, as Merriwell sent Danny and Bink away for some sh.e.l.ls and began to wipe out Bart's gun in readiness for the shooting-contest. "Don't throw away any shots. Show those cads what you can do. A lot of them are beginning to think that Badger is really a better man than you are. If he defeats you----"

"He'll never defeat Merriwell!" a.s.serted Rattleton. "Come off the dump!"

"Of course he can't!" added Diamond.

"There are no dead-sure things," droned Dismal. "I've been enticed into squandering good dollars on several dead-sure things. I've got more sense and less dollars."

"Wait and see!" sputtered Rattleton.

"Who is to shoot first?" Badger asked, walking toward Merriwell's crowd.

Badger had noticed the character of the fellows who had gathered round him, and he was nettled. On the outskirts he even saw the face of Donald Pike--once his friend, now hated by him as a foe.

"Suit yourself," Merriwell answered.

"We'll flip a coin," said Badger.

One of the soph.o.m.ores drew out a half-dollar and twirled it in the air.

"I'll take heads!" said Merry.

But the head of the coin fell downward, and Badger, taking the gun given him, walked out to the line and faced the traps.