being permitted to shoot through the favor of members,
and all the spectators, as well, knew now that Badger and Merriwell had
finally pitted themselves against each other in a friendly shooting
contest, with the chances in favor of a tie.

Hodge was hardly able to breathe, and Harry Rattleton was fidgeting
uneasily. The spectators craned their necks as Badger, whose trial came
first, walked into position with an air of easy confidence, that dark,
determined smile disfiguring his face.

"I'm afraid your chances are gone, Merriwell!" droned Dismal Jones. "'We
never miss the water till the well runs dry.'"

"Keep still," grunted Browning, "or you'll make me nervous!"

"I wish somebody would make Badger nervous!" wailed Bink.

"Sing out that a queen bee is coming for him!" urged Danny, in an
undertone.

"Keep still!" said Merriwell.

Badger balanced his gun, called "Pull!" and threw it into position as
the birds sprang from the trap.

A deafening explosion followed. The gun was torn to pieces and Badger
was hurled backward to the ground.

CHAPTER X.

BADGER'S CHALLENGE.

Merriwell and others sprang toward him to offer their aid. Frank could
hardly believe what he had seen and heard. He feared Badger was
seriously or fatally injured, but was relieved before he reached the
Kansan to see the latter rise unsteadily to his feet.

Badger looked dazedly about, then down at his numbed left hand and arm.
They felt dead, and he could hardly lift them. But he saw they were not
mangled.

"I hope you are not hurt!" Frank exclaimed.

The blood rushed in a great wave into the Westerner's dark face, and he
gave Frank a strange look.

"Your gun has gone to pieces!" he said gruffly.

"But I hope you are not hurt. There are other guns. I don't understand
how it happened."

There was a suspicious light in Badger's eyes.

"I'll not be able to beat you," he said. "I don't know that I can shoot
again, and it's a wonder, I reckon, that my arm wasn't torn off."

He turned toward the exploded gun. The stock was uninjured and the lock
mechanism, but the muzzle end of the right barrel was split open and a
section blown out of it.

"You didn't get mud or anything of that kind in the muzzle?" Merriwell
questioned, anxiously examining the ruined weapon. "That will sometimes
make a gun explode."

"None whatever!" Badger grumbled, nursing his numbed hand and arm, while
a crowd gathered round him and Merriwell, asking e