uncture.

"Here it goes," cried the professor sending the hat spinning away from
them, with the edge of the brim almost toward them. The hat was
spinning low and a very difficult mark to hit.

Tad thought the Ranger was going to take a shot at it, but instead
of doing so, McKay nodded to Tad, with a merry twinkle in his eye.

Tad whipped out his revolver with a quickness that amazed the Ranger,
and let go. His bullet snipped a piece from the edge of the rim. The
force of the bullet turned the hat crown toward the shooter.

Bang, bang, bang! Tad bored three holes through the crown to the
captain's amazement.

"There! I guess we are even with you now, Professor," laughed the boy.
"That old hat of yours won't hold water next time you go to the spring."

"I thought you folks didn't know how to shoot," wondered the Ranger.
"I guess I'd better take some lessons from you instead of you from
me. That certainly was mighty fine gun work. Where did you learn?"

"Since we have been out. I am not much of a shot with the revolver,
though. I think I can do better with the rifle."

"How about the rest of you?" questioned the captain. "Do all of you
shoot like that?"

"I suppose I am about the best shot in the outfit," answered Stacy
pompously. "I can hit a penny---"

"Yes, if the penny is glued to the muzzle," interrupted Ned.

"We'll see what you can do."

Stacy, after three shots, failed to hit the hat once. Walter and Ned
each succeeded in placing a bullet through the professor's hat. Chunky
insisted that his bullet went through one of the holes made by Tad
Butler. He declared that he had never missed an easy shot like that in
his life.

"Here, hit my hat," commanded Tad, tossing his sombrero into the air.
The fat boy watched the soaring hat with longing eyes.

"Shoot, shoot, why don't you?" jeered the Pony Rider Boys.

"All right if you say so."

Stacy's pistol stuck in the holster and by the time he had freed the
weapon the sombrero was only some seven or eight feet from the ground.

"Yeow!" howled the fat boy letting go two bullets with a speed that
they had no idea he possessed.

"It's a hit!" cried the professor.

Tad ran forward and picked up the hat.

"Well, what do you think of that?" he wondered.

"Did he hit it?" called Walter.

"Of course he did."

"Oh, pooh! That hole was in your sombrero before he shot," scoffed
Ned Rector.

"You are wrong. There were no holes in the hat. No