dy, as he
came up to his cousins. "Werner is four and five points ahead of you."

"Well, I am doing the best I can," declared the young captain. He
would have resented such familiarity from anyone except his fun-loving
cousin.

"And I'm doing the best I can," asserted the young lieutenant.

At the long-distance range Lewis Barrow was the first of the four to
show his skill. He was a young Westerner, and had a great familiarity
with firearms. He shot quickly and neatly, making a score of 10.

"Hurrah! That gives Lew Barrow a total of forty points!"

"Good work, Lew! I guess that gold medal is yours."

"Not much!" returned the Westerner, with a faint smile. "I didn't do
very well. I guess the wind was against me."

The next to shoot was Fred, and to the amazement of many of those
looking on, the youngest Rover made a score of 15, giving him a total
of forty-two points.

"Good work, Fred!" cried Jack, grasping his cousin by the hand.

"Oh, it takes our Fred to do it!" cried Andy, dancing around. And then
he had to turn a couple of handsprings to relieve his feelings.

"Huh! you just wait till Gabe shoots," said Bill Glutts.

"He's the one to win that gold medal!" piped in Codfish.

"Well, there is one thing sure--you'll never walk off with any medal,
Codfish," returned Randy; and at this there was a laugh, for the sneak
of the school had made a poor showing on all of the targets--in fact,
he was so timid that he was almost afraid to discharge his rifle.

Gabe Werner strode forward with a superior air and inspected the rifle
that was handed to him critically.

"I want a gun that shoots straight," he said.

He took a long time to shoot, sighting his rifle several times before
each discharge. His first shots were fairly good, but then his
nervousness asserted itself, and he all but missed the target. His
total was eight points, bringing his grand total up to thirty-nine
points.

"Hello, Werner's dropped down!"

"He is one point behind Barrow and three points behind Fred Rover."

"Say, Gabe, what happened to you? Did you get a dose of the shakes?"
asked one of his followers.

"Maybe somebody moved the target on him," suggested Andy slyly.

"Perhaps the rifle had a twist in the barrel," announced Randy.

"Oh, say, this is none of your affair!" growled Gabe Werner, as he
threw down the rifle in disgust and faced the two fun-loving Rovers.
"You mind your own business!"

"Gracious, but you're peppery!" s