"Yes, I got along pretty well with the slow fire, Henry, but I’m rotten in rapid fire, especially at 200 yards. Somehow I can’t get the knack of it." "That is funny, for I am perfectly at home in rapid fire," said Henry. "If I can get on my tummy and shoot ’em I am safe, therefore I don’t fear the skirmish runs. How many more points can be made from now on? Let’s figure it out!" "We could make three hundred more. Each of the two skirmish runs counts one hundred, and the scores at rapid fire at 200 and 300 yards are fifty each, but I don’t reckon we will get anything like that. Besides, you shouldn’t worry, and I need but one-thirty-seven to qualify as marksman, and you a hundred and eighteen." "You are wrong, Hank. It’s true you require but three hundred points to make you a marksman, but you need as many points as you can get. I’m not satisfied just to scrape through in a matter of this kind, and because the thing appears easy is all the more reason we should try for the highest score we possibly can get. Then there is another reason; your marksman’s score is added to what you make in the sharpshooter’s course, and you’ve got to make a total of four hundred and fifteen points to get the qualification, which then gives you the right to shoot the expert test." "You are right again, Dick, and thank you for the tip, or I might have missed my badge and the extra pay." [Illustration: Marksman badge. This is the badge of the lowest qualification. Below this men are rated as "1st class," but receive no badge.] That night when the different divisions of the _Denver’s_ complement returned, tired and hungry, to their ship, Sergeant Battiste worked till late arranging the scores of those who had fired, and out of twenty aspirants for the honor all had qualified as marksmen and would shoot the following day. Of the twenty, the top notch shot was none other than Dick, and fighting for last place were Trumpeter Cabell and Private Jones, both with 323 points to their credit. Dick had made the excellent score of 449 out of a possible 500 points. [Illustration: The Badge Awarded to Henry Cabell] The following evening when the shooting cohorts returned on board having finished the Sharpshooter’s[#] Course, he was still leading the detachment with a total score of 586 points. [#] This course consisted of ten shots slow fire at 800 yards, same at 1,000 yards, and ten shots rapid fire at 500 yards; a possible score being 150 points. "The 1,000-yard range was my Waterloo to-day," he explained to First Sergeant Douglass, who did not have to fire, being already an expert rifleman; "a fellow needs a lot more practise than I’ve had to be able to find and hold the bull at that distance, especially if there is a ’fish tail’[#] wind blowing, as happened to-day. Anyway, I’m sure of my Maltese Cross; but I want to pull down that expert’s badge to-morrow, for it’s the finest of the lot."