“Can you h-hit it with your sling-shot?”
I took a good stone and fitted it in the leather, then I knelt close to the door and took aim careful as I could. They waited, holding their breaths until I let go the rubbers, and in a second the old bell said glang just as plain as if somebody had rung it. Mark grinned until all the fat on his face looked as if it was trying to climb back of his ears. “Fine,” he says; “now keep away from the door.”
“Why?”
“So he won’t see us and think we done it. It’s got to be mysterious, ain’t it?”
We got a little back from the door, and I shot again, but this time I missed. Binney took a try at it, and glang went the old bell.
“Wait,” said Mark.
Pretty soon we saw the old man come poking out of the house and look around. He walked back to the bell and looked up at it and turned all around, watching everywhere, but of course there wasn’t a thing to be seen. When his back was to the bell Mark said to shoot again. I let her go, and glang went the bell. The old man jumped like I’d shot him instead of the bell, and looked up at it with his eyes sticking out big as eggs. I’ll bet it was a mighty mysterious happening to him.
“N-now,” says Mark, “shoot the d-dog.”
I scrouged close to the door and let the old whopper have one in the ribs. He jumped worse than the old man did when the bell rang and said “Yip, yip!”
Well, there was another noise for him. He came walking our way cautious, and he was as pale as a pond-lily. When he was about half-way I let fly at the bell again, and when it glanged I thought he was going to throw a fit. He wheeled around to look that way, and Binney reached out quick and gave the dog another. He yowled again, and around came the old man, but there wasn’t a thing to see. We could sit back where he couldn’t see us and plug away at his bell all day. We rang it twice, one glang right after another. If I’d been that fellow I calculate I’d most have jumped out of my skin, just as he did. What with the bell a-ringing without anybody to ring it, and the dog a-yelping without anybody to make him yelp, it was spooky enough to suit anybody, and a lot more than enough to suit him. You could see he wished there was five or six other men with him, or that he was off in the next state.