“Just take a look in the bullseye and you’ll find both of them. I just pile them one on top of another!” Lanky calmly let his rifle drop to the ground.
Ralph and Buster raced to the target and looked carefully. It was Ralph who spoke:
“Both in the same spot!”
Frank Allen did not attempt to restrain his smile, for he knew that Lanky was a good shot, one of the best in Columbia, and he was amused by the bombastic attitude that Lanky had taken, realizing that Lanky, unassuming ordinarily, was just putting this on to-day for the fun of it. Frank knew that Lanky himself had not been certain whether or not he had put his second shot on top of the first.
Lanky took his third shot, permitted him by their unwritten rules that when a boy hit the bullseye he was entitled to another shot at once.
This time Frank watched the level of Lanky’s rifle, and smiled broadly again as he realized that Lanky was deliberately shooting over the top of the ravine. When his shot rang out there was no additional mark on the target.
“Just look in the bullseye where the others went,” he calmly said, and the same two boys, Paul and Buster, hurried to the target to see if this could possibly be true.
Lanky turned to Frank, saw the broad smile on Frank’s face, and whispered to him:
“Shot over the top of the ravine. Bet they’ll say I hit in the center again.”
Just then Paul, spokesman for the two, called out: