"He missed it by half a mile," jeered the umpire. "Why don't you change your sights? You are shooting over the mark."
Tom took the next try. He balanced his rock, after having pried it loose, and made it ready for the fall, and sent it crashing along on its way. As nearly as the eye could measure, Tom's boulder fell some twenty rods to the right of the tree aimed at. Tom then made ready a boulder for Grace. She failed to hit the lake, and derisive howls greeted her effort. Elfreda and Nora did a little better than that. Both hit the lake, but nowhere near the mark they had aimed at.
"You folks make me tired. You ought to go to night school and learn how to roll stones. Why, even our little transmigrating Emma could beat you sharps at throwing stones. Emma, will you roll if I fix a boulder for you?" questioned Stacy.
"Yes, if you promise not to play tricks on me."
Stacy winked at Emma and nodded sideways to the others, as indicating that the trick was to be played on them, then snatching up his pole he ran to a boulder that he had some time since selected for his own.
After prying the rock into proper position, squinting and sighting and surveying the rock from all sides, he nodded to Emma and offered the pole to her.
"Take it easy. If you can't move the rock I'll lend you a hand," whispered Stacy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are now about to witness one of Emma Dean's most notable transmigration feats. Keep your eyes on the performer and you will see that she has nothing up her sleeve--nor under her hat," announced Hippy Wingate.
"Tip it over!" commanded Stacy, throwing his weight on the pole with Emma. "Watch the two twin-trees down there, but look sharply or you won't see them when they disappear from the face of the earth," he warned, strolling back towards his companions.
Emma's boulder, not being quite round, moved very slowly at first, and once it threatened to stop altogether and go no further, but finally, gaining new impetus, it started savagely on its way to the ledge, where it did a clumsy hop into the air, then dived for the lake.
"It is going to hit the lake!" cried Grace.
"What did you think we were trying to hit?" demanded Stacy. "If it is a hit--if little Emma makes a killing, I did it. If she misses, she did it."