136 The Grouse Family 



to momentarily stagger in its flight, then up it 

 went in a mighty spiral, as though boring into 

 the blue beyond like a feathered corkscrew. 



The man had loaded like lightning, and his 

 first impulse was to rush under and shoot the 

 climber. Then he thought of the dog, and of 

 something else, so he stood his ground while he 

 and his comrades stared with big eyes at the 

 strange exhibition. 



Round and round in narrowing circles, higher 

 and higher, climbed the stricken thing, the shat- 

 tered nerve refusing to act, the blind eyes failing 

 to direct as the game heart wished. Up and up, 

 in smaller and smaller circles, with fan full- 

 spread and whirring wings, it toiled with nervous 

 strength, until it looked like a golden lark, for the 

 old sun was sorry to see it and glorified its dying 

 agony. At last the seemingly small wings stilled 

 and set full-spread, the legs stretched stiffly, and 

 like a kite with broken string it started earth- 

 ward. 



" I'll catch it," said the man, as he laid down his 

 gun and sped forward with long leaps. He did 

 catch it without breaking a feather. He showed 

 the woman where the single pellet had struck. 



" The rest are all down yonder in the scrub, 

 and we'll get — " here he happened to glance into 

 the woman's eyes and hastily changed what he 

 had intended to say into, "the rest some other 



