gun of yours the other way,"
suggested Mr. Moker as he went out, carefully folding the bills
which Tom had handed him.

"Hum! that was rather queer," remarked Ned, after a pause.

"It sure was," agreed his chum. "This rifle will do more than I
thought it would. I'll have to be more careful. I was sure I set the
gage for two hundred feet. I'll have to invent some automatic
attachment to prevent it being discharged when the gage is set
wrong." Let us state here that Tom did this, and never had another
accident.

"Well, does this end the test?" asked Ned.

"No, indeed. I want you to try it, while I look on," spoke Tom. "We
haven't any more stuffed figures to fire at, but I'll set up some
targets. Come on, try your luck at a shot."

"I'm afraid I might disturb Mr. Moker, or some of the neighbors."

"No danger. I've got it adjusted right now. Come on, see if you can
shatter this steel target," and Tom set up a small one at the end of
the range.

Then, having properly fixed the weapon, Tom handed it to his chum,
and, taking his place in a protected part of the gallery, prepared
to watch the effect of the shot.

"Let her go!" cried Tom, and Ned pressed the button.

The effect was wonderful. Though there was no noise, smoke nor
flame, the steel plate seemed to crumple up, and collapse as if it
had been melted in the fire. There was a jagged hole through the
center, but some frail boards back of it were not even splintered.

"Good shot!" cried Tom enthusiastically. "I had the distance gage
right that time."

"You sure did," agreed Ned. "The electric bullet stopped as soon as
it did its work on the plate. What's next?"

"I'm going to try a difficult test," explained Tom. "You know I said
the gun would shoot luminous charges?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm going to try that, now. I wish we had another image to
shoot at, but I'll take a big dry-goods box, and make believe it's
an elephant. Now, this is going to be a hard test, such as we'd meet
with, if we were hunting in Africa. I want you to help me."

"What am I to do?" asked Ned.

"I want you to go outside," explained Tom, "set up a dry-goods box
against the side of the little hill back of the shed, and not tell
me where you put it. Then I'll go out, and, by means of the luminous
charge, I'll locate the box, set the distance gage, and destroy it."

"Well, you can see it anyhow, in the moonlight," objected Ned.

"No, the moon is under a cloud now," explained Tom, l