Both men exploded in laughter, in the confusion of which, stunned, surprised, delighted and excited with the thought of eventual ownership, Bobby marched out the door, where he was joined gravely by Duke, his beautiful feather tail waving slowly to and fro as he walked.
Later in the day Kincaid, the spare, brown man with the twinkling gray eyes, met Mr. Orde on the street.
"Hullo, Orde!" he greeted. "Hear you have a sure win of the tournament."
"Sure win!" said Orde, puzzled, "What you talking about? You know I couldn"t shoot against you fellows."
"Well, your small boy told me you were going to win that rifle down at Bishop"s, and give it to him."
Orde"s face clouded.
"He"s been talking nothing but rifle for a month," said he. "I"m going West in September. Wouldn"t have any show against you fellows, anyway."
When Bobby heard this paralyzing piece of news, his entire scheme of things seemed shattered. For a long time he sat staring with death in his heart. Then he arose silently and disappeared.
In the Proper Place, among Bobby"s other possessions, was a small toy gun. Its stock was of pine, its lock of polished cast iron, and its barrel of tin. The pulling of the trigger released a spring in the barrel, which in turn projected a pebble or other missile a short and harmless distance. Then a ramrod re-set the spring. When, the previous Christmas, Bobby had acquired this weapon, he had been very proud of it.
Latterly, however, it had fallen into disfavour as offering too painful a contrast to the real thing as exemplified by the Flobert Rifle.
Bobby rummaged the darkness of the Proper Place until he found this toy gun. From the sack in his father"s closet--forbidden--he deliberately abstracted a handful of bird-shot. Retiring to the woodshed, he set the spring in the gun, poured in what he considered to be about the proper quant.i.ty of shot, and solemnly discharged it at the high fence. The leaden pellets sprayed out and spattered harmlessly against the boards.
Thrice Bobby repeated this. Then, quite without heat or rancour, he threw the toy gun and what remained of the shot over the fence into the vacant lot behind it. His common sense had foretold just this result to his experiment, so he was not in the least disappointed; but he had considered it his duty to try the only expedient his ingenuity could invent. For if--by a miracle--the little gun had discharged the shot with force; Bobby might--by a miracle--be permitted to partic.i.p.ate with it in the Shoot; and might--by a miracle--win the Flobert himself. Bobby was no fool. He marked the necessity of three miracles; and he did not in the least expect them. Merely he wished to fulfill his entire duty to the situation.
Sat.u.r.day morning--the very day of the Shoot--Mr. Orde left for California.
After lunch Bobby trudged to Main Street, turned to the right, away from town, and set himself in patient motion toward the shooting grounds.
These were situated some two miles out along the county road. Bobby had driven to them many times, but had never attempted to cover the distance afoot. The sun was hot, and the way dusty. Many buggies and one large carry-all pa.s.sed him, each full of the partic.i.p.ants in the contest. No one thought of giving Bobby a lift, in fact no one noticed him at all.
He could not help thinking how different it would be if only his father had not gone West.
"h.e.l.lo!" called a hearty voice behind him.
He turned to see a yellow two-wheeled cart drawn by a gaunt white horse.
On the seat close to the horse"s tail sat Mr. Kincaid.
"Going to the Shoot?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," said Bobby.
"Well, jump in."
Mr. Kincaid moved one side, and lifted half the seat so Bobby could climb in from the rear. Then he let the seat down again and clucked to the horse.
Mr. Kincaid wore an ancient gray slouch hat pulled low over his eyes; and a very old suit of gray clothes, wrinkled and baggy. Somehow, in contrast, his skin showed browner than ever. He looked down at Bobby, the fine good-humour lines about his eyes deepening.
"Well youngster," said he, "where"s your father?"
Bobby"s eyes fell; he kicked his feet back and forth. Beneath them lay Mr. Kincaid"s worn leather gun-case, and an oblong j.a.panned box which Bobby knew contained sh.e.l.ls. For an instant he struggled with himself.
"He--he had to go to California," he choked; and looked away quickly to hide the tears that sprang to his eyes.
Mr. Kincaid whistled and raised his hand so abruptly that the old white horse, mistaking the movement for a signal, stopped dead, and instantly went to sleep.
"Get ap, Bucephalus!" cried Mr. Kincaid indignantly.
Bucephalus deliberately awoke, and after a moment"s pause moved on. To Bobby"s relief Mr. Kincaid said nothing further, but humped over the reins, and looked ahead steadily across the horse"s back. He stole a glance at the older man; and suddenly without reason a great wave of affection swept over him. He liked his companion"s clear brown skin, and the close clipped gray of his hair, and his big gray moustache beneath which the corners of his mouth quirked faintly up, and the network of fine crow"s feet at his temples, and the clear steady steel-colour of his eyes beneath the bushy brows. On the spot Bobby enshrined a hero.
But now they turned off the main road through a gap in the snake-fence, and followed many wheel tracks to the farther confines of the field where, under a huge tree they could see a group of men. These hailed Mr.
Kincaid with joy.
"h.e.l.lo, Kin, old man," they roared. "Got here, did you? What day did you start? The old thing must be about dead. Lean him up against a tree, and come tell us about the voyage."
"The cannon-ball express is strictly on schedule time, boys," replied Mr. Kincaid, looking solemnly at his watch.
He drove to the fence, where he tied Bucephalus. The other rigs were hitched here and there at distances that varied as the gun-shyness of the horses. Bobby proudly bore the gun-case. Mr. Kincaid lifted out the heavy box of sh.e.l.ls.
Bobby took in the details of the scene with a delight that even his just cause for depression could not quench.
The men, some twenty in number, sprawled on the ground or sat on boxes.
Before them stood a wooden rack with sockets, in which already were stacked a number of shotguns. Two pails of water flanked this rack, in each of which had been thrust a slotted hickory "wiper" threaded with a square of cloth. A fairly large empty wooden box, for the reception of exploded sh.e.l.ls, marked the spot on which the shooters would stand. The rotary trap lay in plain sight eighteen yards away. That completed the list of arrangements, which were, in the light of modern methods, as every trap shooter of to-day will recognize, exceedingly crude.
The men, however, supplied the interest which the equipment might lack.
At that time every trap-shot was also a field shot. The cla.s.s which confines itself to targets had not even been thought of. And good picked-shots have in common everywhere certain qualities, probably developed by the life in the open, and the unique influences of woodland and upland hunting. They are generous, and large in spirit, and absolutely democratic--the millionaire and the mechanic meet on equal ground--and deliberate in humour, and dry of wit. The quiet chaffing, tolerant, good-humoured, genuine intercourse of hunters cannot be matched in any other cla.s.s.
The components of this group had each served his apprenticeship in the blinds or the cover. They knew each other in the freemasonry of the Field; and when they met together, as now, they spoke from the gentle magic of the open heart.
One exception must be made to this statement, however. Joseph Newmark, in advance of his time, shot methodically and well at the trap, never went afield, and maintained toward his neighbours an habitual dry att.i.tude of politeness.
Bobby seated himself on the ground and prepared to listen with the completest enjoyment. These men were to him great or little according as they shot well or ill. That was to him the sole criterion. It did not matter to him that Mr. Heinzman controlled the largest interests in the western part of the state--he "couldn"t hit a balloon"; nor that young Wellman was looked upon as worthless and a loafer--he was well up among the first five.
Nearly everybody smoked something. The tobacco smelled good in the open air.
"Well," remarked Kincaid, "if that Stafford party doesn"t show up before long, I"m going home. I can"t stand you fellows without some excitement for a counter-irritant."
"That"s right, Kin," called somebody, "Better start that old Buzzard toward town pretty soon, if you want to get in for breakfast--there"s a good moon!"
But at this moment a delivery wagon turned into the field, and drove briskly to the spot. From it Mr. Stafford descended spryly.
"Sorry to be a little late, boys; just couldn"t help it," he apologized.
His arrival galvanized the crowd into activity. From the delivery wagon they unloaded boxes of sh.e.l.ls, two camp stools and a number of barrels.
The driver then hitched his horses to the fence, and returned to act as trap-puller.
One of the barrels was rolled out to the trap, opened, and its contents carefully spilled on the ground. It contained a quant.i.ty of sawdust and brown gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s. These were about the size of a base-ball, had an opening at the top, and were filled with feathers. John, the driver of the delivery wagon, climbed down into a pit below the trap. He set the spring of the trap and placed a gla.s.s ball in its receptacle at the end of one of the two projecting arms. A long cord ran from the trap back to the shooting stand.
Mr. Stafford opened a camp stool, sat down, and produced a long blank book. In this he inscribed the men"s names. Each gave him two dollars and a half as an entrance fee. A referee and scorer were appointed from among the half-dozen non-shooting spectators.
"Newmark to shoot; Heinzman on deck!" called the scorer in a business-like voice.
The trapper ducked into his hole. Mr. Newmark thrust five loaded sh.e.l.ls into his side pocket, picked his gun from the rack and stepped forward to the mark. Then he loaded one barrel of the gun and stood at ready.