“Goodness, you talk like a regular ‘Alkali Ike’,” grinned Hiram.
“Bet you I could hit an apple at two hundred yards with this rifle, anyway,” asserted the stout youth.
“Bet my hunting knife you can’t.”
“All right, we’ll try to-morrow. This rifle is a dandy, I tell you.”
“Pooh! It won’t carry a hundred yards.”
“It won’t, eh? It’ll carry half a mile, the man who sold it to me said so.”
“Minds me uv er gun my uncle had daown in Virginny,” put in Jumbo who had been an interested listener, “that thar gun was ther mos’ umbliquitos gun I ever hearn’ tell uv.”
“It was a long distance shooter, eh?” laughed the major, scenting some fun.
“Long distance, sah! Why, majah, sah, dat gun hadn’t no ekil fo’ long distancenessness. Dat gun ’ud shoot—it ’ud shoot de eye out uv er lilly fly des as fur as you could see.”
“It would, really, Jumbo?” inquired Andy Bowles, deeply interested.