"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do to win your horse, Little Grey. I'll put up all I have offered you against your animal and shoot for them."
"Why, Billy, I don't want to win your pony and money."
"And I don't want you to; but I'll shoot with you for your horse against mine and all else I have offered."
The sergeant was a grasping man, and confident of his powers, at last assented, and the match was to take place at once.
But the officers learning of it were determined Billy should have fair play, and a day was set a week off, and the boy was told to practice regularly with both pistol and rifle, for the terms were ten off-hand shots with the latter at fifty and one hundred yards, and six shots standing with the revolver at fifteen paces and six from horseback, and riding at full speed by the target.
Billy at once set to work to practice, though he had confidence in his unerring aim, and upon the day of trial came to the fort with a smiling face.
Nearly everybody in the fort went out to see the match, and the sergeant was called first to toe the mark.
He raised his rifle and his five shots at fifty yards were quickly fired.
Billy gave a low whistle, but toed the scratch promptly, and his five shots were truer than the sergeant's, and a wild cheer broke from one and all.
At one hundred yards the sergeant's shooting was better than the boy's; and so it was with the pistol shooting, for when standing the sergeant's shots were best, and in riding full speed by the target, Billy's were the truest, and it was called a tie.