f skill with their
rifles. From where they stood, the most practiced eye would have failed
to discover any spot which could possibly afford shelter for one of
their number, much less for them all. But beneath a cluster of bushes,
projecting from the upper edge of the bank, was an orifice, barely
sufficient to admit the passage of a man's body. Entering this, on his
hands and knees, he was ushered into a subterranean cave, dark, but of
ample dimensions to accommodate a dozen men. It was furnished with
blankets and the skins of different animals, and each of the Riflemen
took especial pride in decorating and fixing it up for their
convenience.

Dick paced off two hundred yards, and then chipped a small piece from
the trunk of a beech tree along the river-bank, as a target for their
weapons. As he stepped one side, O'Hara raised his piece, and scarcely
pausing to take aim, fired. Instead of striking the mark, he missed it
by fully two inches. When this was announced, he turned round, and with
an impatient exclamation, demanded:

"Who fired that gun last?"

"I believe I did," replied Dernor.

"You just touch it again, and you'll never touch another rifle. Do you
know what you have done?"

"Know what I've done? Of course I do. I've fired it."

"_You've put a spell on it._"

"The deuce! Try it again!"

O'Hara shook his head.

"It would never miss such a mark as that unless it was bewitched. I've
got to melt up that money of mine, or the thing will never be worth a
half-penny again."

When a Kentuckian's gun is bewitched, or has a "spell upon it," the
only way in which he can free it of its enchantment, is by firing a
silver bullet from it. Unless this is done, they steadfastly believe it
can never be relied upon afterward.

O'Hara, accordingly, produced his bullet-mould, kindled a fire, which
required much more blowing and care to fuse the metal than it did to
melt lead or pewter. But he succeeded at last, melting down all his
spare change to make the small, shining bullet. This was rammed down
his gun, a deliberate aim taken, and Dick announced that it had struck
the mark plumb in the center. The charm was gone!

It would be uninteresting to narrate the different methods by which
each of the three men demonstrated his remarkable skill with his
favorite weapon. They fired at different distances, at objects in the
air, and in each others' hands, and then discharged their pieces on a
run, wheeling as quick as t