wth, thith ith awful! I'm a thight! Get a
cab, thomebody, and take me home. I'm thick!"

"No cab here," said Skelding, who was also anxious to get away from the
joking and guying crowd. "But I see a carriage over there. Yes, two of
them."

"Get a cawiage--anything!" moaned Veazie. "Take me to the hothpital,
take me to a laundwy, take me to a bath--anywhere, quick!"

The exodus of Veazie and his friends was followed by the return of
Merriwell and his comrades to the traps. Hodge had not been long out of
a sick-bed, and looked thin and weak. He walked with Merriwell. The
other members of the flock had forgiven him for the rancorous and sulky
spirit which had made him refuse to catch in the ball-game against
Hartford, in which Buck Badger had pitched, but they had not forgotten
it. They were courteous, but they were not cordial, and Hodge felt it.

Buck Badger came upon the ground, but without a gun. He was alone, too,
and he kept away from Merriwell's crowd. He had not learned to like
Merriwell's friends, any of them, and he detested Hodge.

Having taken his gun from its case, Merriwell put it together, and
opened a box of loaded shells, which he placed on the ground. The gun
was a beautiful twelve-gage hammerless, of late design and American
manufacture, bored for trap shooting. Hodge's gun was so nearly like it
that they could scarcely be told apart.

Morton Agnew and Donald Pike came on the grounds before the shooting
began. Merriwell observed that Badger affected not to notice them, but
the Westerner was plainly annoyed.

"Perhaps you would like to shoot!" said Merriwell, going over to Badger
with his gun. "I can let you have the use of my gun. Hodge has one just
like it, and all our other fellows have good guns. So, if you'd like to
shoot! It's all right, and as good as they make them."

The Kansan was plainly pleased.

"And I can let you have shells."

"I'll take the gun, Merriwell," he said, balancing it in his hands and
looking it over. "But I can't let you furnish shells, when I can buy all
I want right here on the grounds. And there is no reason why you can't
shoot with it, too."

"None at all, old man, only I thought likely you wouldn't want to mix in
with our crowd. I can shoot Bart's gun."

Badger flushed and his face darkened. He was on the point of saying
something bitter against Hodge.

"I didn't intend to shoot when I came out," he said, choking down the
angry utterance, "or I should have