I don't understand how it happened." There was a suspicious light in Badger's eyes.
"I'll not be able to beat you," he said.

"I don't know that I can shoot again, and it's a wonder, I reckon, that my arm wasn't torn off." He turned toward the exploded gun.

The stock was uninjured and the lock mechanism, but the muzzle end of the right barrel was split open and a section blown out of it.
"You didn't get mud or anything of that kind in the muzzle ?" Merriwell questioned, anxiously examining the ruined weapon.

"That will sometimes make a gun explode." "None whatever!" Badger grumbled, nursing his numbed hand and arm, while a crowd gathered round him and Merriwell, asking excited and eager questions.

"Do you think I'm fool enough to do a thing like that ?" Frank plucked at Rattleton's arm.
"Take charge of that box of shells," he said, in an undertone.