"The impudence of the fellow!" grunted Browning, who overheard the remark. Hodge, who was standing near Browning, heard it, too.
"I wish you'd hit him, Merry!" he panted.
"No doubt you'd like to do that," said Badger. "But I'd advise you not to try."
"Mr. Badger and I are going to shoot at ten double birds," said Frank, pretending not to notice these things. "I will use your gun, Bart."
"And Badger may use mine," said a sophomore, who was one of Badger's friends, and had been one of Merriwell's enemies. "But for goodness sake, don't use any more dynamite shells!"
Merriwell saw that Morton Agnew had come up and was looking earnestly at Badger and at the ruined gun.
"I wonder that Badger doesn't remember that you slipped a 'fixed' cartridge into a gun for him once," was Frank's thought. "You are at the bottom of this, and your villainy has gone far enough. When I come to strike you I shall strike hard!"
The shattered gun still furnished attraction for many, and Agnew pushed forward to get a close look at it, and to ask questions. Rattleton came up to Merriwell with the box of loaded shells.
"They are not all just alike, Merry!" he declared. "I have been looking them over. See!"
He took up three of the shells and exhibited them to Frank. A casual glance would show no difference between them and the other shells in the box. But a close inspection showed that the brass did not go up quite so high on the paper.