A NEW ACQUAINTANCE.
Ralph Gurney was one who thoroughly enjoyed everything in which pleasure
could be found, and even while George was caring for his horses, of
which he was very fond, Ralph had already begun a survey of the farm on
which he was to spend his vacation.
The cattle, poultry, horses, dogs, and even the cat, had received some
attention from him, and he was on his way to the sheep-pasture near by
to make the acquaintance of the woolly members of the flock, when the
sharp ping of a bullet was heard as it whistled by his head, while, a
second later, the report of a rifle rang out sharply.
There was something so entirely unexpected and so thoroughly startling
in this mode of salutation in so peaceful a place, that Ralph leaped two
or three feet in his fright, and at the same time saw the hole in the
brim of his hat, which showed how near the deadly missile had come to
him.
Almost any one would be alarmed at such a visitor, even though he might
have been expecting this attention, and Ralph came very near trembling
with fear as he realized how narrow had been his escape from death.
He looked quickly around to see who was using him as a target; but no
one was in sight. The sheep had been quite as much startled by the
report as he had by the proximity of the bullet; therefore, there was no
reason to suspect that they had had anything to do with this decided
frightening of the new boarder.
Ralph was on the point of calling out to George for an explanation of
this apparently reckless shooting, when a voice from amid a small clump
of trees shouted:
"Hold out your hat and I will put a bullet through the center of it."
Even if Ralph had not been angry because of the danger he had been
forced to run, he would not have accepted any such cheerful invitation,
and, instead of replying, he looked carefully around in search of the
speaker.
"Hold out your hat, and I will show you what I can do," continued the
voice, while its owner persistently remained hidden.
"I don't know who you are," said Ralph, speaking sharply; "but from what
I have already seen of your reckless shooting, I consider it to be some
one's duty to teach you how to handle fire-arms."
"And you propose to do it, eh?" was the question, as a boy eighteen or
nineteen years of age, with a face that was the perfect picture of good
humor, walked out of the thicket. On his shoulder he carried a rifle,
and in his left hand some partridges and a fox-skin. "That was a nasty
shave for you," he continued, in a half-apologetic tone; "but, you see,
I hadn't any idea there was any one around. Farmer Kenniston is down on
the meadow, and Harnett went to town this morning; so you see that, by
rights, you ought not have been here."
"And because, in your opinion, I should have been somewhere else, you
concluded to send me away by the most certain and effectual method?"
asked Ralph, having by no means subdued his anger, although it was
vanishing quite rapidly before the pleasant tone and face of the boy
who had come so near killing him.
"Well, you see, I didn't know you or any one else was within a mile of
the place. I had a charge left in my rifle, and I wanted to see if I
could knock a knot out of that second board in the barn. Just as I
pulled the trigger, you came from behind the shed, and then I couldn't
call the bullet back. I am sorry that I startled you so, and I was in
hopes you would hold out your hat, so that you could have seen how handy
I am with a rifle, which would have made you feel easier."
"I must confess that I can't understand how I could be soothed by any
proof of your skill as a marksman," replied Ralph, with a smile, his
anger now almost completely gone. "Of course, I know that you didn't
intend to shoot so near me; but in the future I advise you to empty your
rifle before you come so near to a house."
"But I have wanted to put a bullet into that knot from the trees back
there ever since I have been here, and now let's see if I struck it
fairly."
As if he considered that he had made all necessary apologies for the
shot which had startled Ralph, the boy started towards the barn, and in
another instant he was pointing triumphantly to the offending knot in
the board, which had been completely shattered by the bullet.
"There!" he cried. "Harnett said I couldn't hit it from that dead pine
tree, and that even if I did succeed in hitting it, I couldn't split it.
Now we'll see what he has got to say to that."
Ralph had nothing to say as to the argument between his friend and the
stranger, and in the absence of anything else to say, he asked:
"Do you live here?"
"I am living here just now, and shall for some weeks longer, I suppose.
You are Ralph Gurney, whom Harnett has been expecting, I fancy?"
"Yes; but if George has told you who I am in advance of my coming, he
has not been so liberal to me in regard to yourself."
"That probably arose from the fact that I am no one in particular,
while, on the contrary, you are to become one of the particularly bright
and shining lights in the medical world. I am only Bob Hubbard."
Who Bob Hubbard might be Ralph had no idea; but even though the young
gentleman spoke of himself in such a deprecating way, it was easy to see
that he did not consider himself of slight consequence in the world. He
was a bright, jovial, generous looking boy, with a certain air about
him which made the shot, fired so dangerously near Ralph, seem just such
a reckless act as might be expected of him.
"Do you like hunting and fishing?" he asked, after he found that Ralph
was not disposed to say anything about the profession of medicine he had
chosen, and which George had evidently spoken of.
"Indeed I do," was the decided reply. "Is there much sport around here?"
"All you want. I have only been out about two hours, and I have got
these," he said, as he held up his game. "And as for fishing, you can
catch trout until your arms ache--providing they bite rapidly enough."
"Indeed!" replied Ralph, dryly. "I fancy I have seen as good almost
anywhere. Do you go fishing very often?"
"Nearly every day."
"Then, if George has any business to attend to this afternoon, suppose
you and I see if the fish will bite fast enough to make our arms ache
pulling them in."
Bob hesitated in what Ralph thought a very peculiar way, and said, after
a pause of some moments:
"I'd like to, but I have an important engagement this afternoon, and I
hardly see how I can arrange it."
There was certainly nothing singular in his not being at liberty to
accept the proposition made so suddenly, and Ralph would have thought
his refusal the most natural thing in the world had it not been for his
evident embarrassment when none seemed reasonable. However, the young
pleasure-seeker attached no importance to what seemed like singular
behavior on the part of this newly-made acquaintance, and was about to
make another proposition for a fishing excursion, when Harnett suddenly
made his appearance.
"Hello, Bob!" he cried, "you've been making the acquaintance of my chum,
have you?"
"Yes, after a fashion. I fired at that knot in the barn you said I
couldn't hit from the pine tree, and came near putting a bullet through
his head. But I hit the knot, and what's more, I split it."
"And here is a hole in the brim of my hat, to prove that he did fire at
it," said Ralph, laughing, as he held up his perforated hat to display
the mark of the bullet.
Harnett looked with no small degree of alarm at the evidence of Bob's
shooting, and said, sternly:
"I think it is quite time that you became a trifle more careful with
your fire-arms, Bob. You have already had several narrow escapes, and
will end by killing some one, if you don't stop shooting at every
promising mark you see."
"I'm not half as careless as I might be," said Bob, earnestly. "This is
the first time that I have ever really come near hurting any one."
"What about the time when you came near hitting Farmer Kenniston, and
killed a lamb? Have you forgotten the untimely death of Mrs.
Kenniston's favorite duck, or your adventure with the red calf in the
pasture?"
"Oh, those don't count--at least none except the lamb scrape are worth
talking about, Harnett, so don't read me one of your long-winded
lectures; and, now that I have hit the knot in the barn, I promise not
to shoot at anything within half a mile of the place. I'm going down to
town for a while, and when I get through with what I have on hand, we'll
make some arrangement to show your friend the oil region."
As he spoke Bob went into the stables, and when the two friends were
alone again, George asked:
"Well, Ralph, how do you like what you have seen of the moonlighters?
Not very ferocious, eh?"
"What do you mean? I haven't seen any moonlighters yet."
"Indeed! You have been talking for the last ten minutes with the most
successful of them. Bob Hubbard enjoys the rather questionable
distinction of being the most noted one in this section of the country."
Ralph looked at his friend in speechless astonishment for several
minutes; this careless, good-natured boy was very far from being the
famous moonlighter his fancy had conjured up, and it is barely possible
that he was disappointed at not having seen some more savage looking
party, for he had speculated considerably about these people who explode
nitro-glycerine in an illegal manner.
"If I am not mistaken," continued Harnett, "he is going to shoot a well
to-night, and I guess there will be no difficulty in getting his consent
for you to be present. Wait here, and I will talk with him."
George hurried away toward the stables, leaving Ralph in a curious
condition of mingled wonder and surprise that in this very
peaceful-looking place there could be found such an evident fund for
adventure.
The gaining of Bob's consent for Ralph to be present at the shooting of
the well was not such a difficult matter, judging from the very short
time George found it necessary to talk with him. When Harnett came from
the stable, he told Ralph that the necessary permission had been given,
and that they would start for the cabin of the moonlighters at once, in
order that none of the details of the work might be lost.
While they were speaking, Bob drove out of the stable behind a pair of
small gray horses, which were so spirited that their driver could pay no
attention to anything but them.
"I'll see you again very soon," he shouted; and hardly had he uttered
the words before he was tearing along the rough road at a rate of speed
that threatened a rapid dissolution of the light carriage.
If George had any business to attend to on that day, he evidently made
up his mind to neglect it, for he began to make his arrangements for the
journey with quite as much eagerness and zest as displayed by Ralph.
Since it was by no means certain that the well would be opened that
night, owing to the vigilance of the owners of the torpedo patent,
George made preparations to remain away from Farmer Kenniston's all
night, taking blankets, food, fishing-tackle and rifles, as if their
excursion was to be one simply of a sporting nature.
"It wouldn't do for us to drive out to the moonlighters' cabin as if we
were going to see a well shot," he said, in reply to Ralph's questions
of what he proposed doing with rifles and fishing-rods; "for, if we were
seen, it would be quickly reported in town, and Bob would have the whole
posse of Roberts Brothers' force upon him. Now, there would be nothing
thought of our going out fishing, which fully accounts for my
preparations. I have known Bob to wait for a week before he dared
explode a charge, and I don't care to get mixed up in any encounter
between these two sets of torpedo men."
"I don't want any harm to come to him through me," replied Ralph,
gleefully, "but I should not be at all sorry to see just a little
excitement in the way of a chase of the moonlighters."
"There is every chance that you will be fully satisfied before you leave
this portion of the country," said George, grimly; and then, as his
horses were ready for the road once more, he added: "Get in, and, if
nothing happens, I will show you the cabin of the moonlighters in less
than an hour."