33^ A Golden Opportunity 



ways of wild things. Always frankly jolly toward 

 those whom he fancied, he was the best of guides 

 and comrades to whomever was so fortunate as to 

 find favor in his eyes. He was a bit careful 

 about the men he asked to share his sport, and 

 he hated a bluffer or a shirker as he hated a blank 

 day. Woe betide the officious know-it-all, or the 

 man who boasted about his prowess and failed to 

 make good. Joe would take him out once and take 

 his measure with an accuracy that would make 

 the Bertillon system appear like guesswork. 

 Joe's " I say he's no good, I sa-ay he's a quitter" 

 forever settled it. 



His treatment of such a man was characteristic. 

 Never a word of fault-finding, or anything like 

 discourtesy, although there surely would be some 

 quaint if not blistering badinage. Joe's rule was 

 to thoroughly size his man the first day, and then 

 treat him according to his deserts. The man 

 found wanting in the necessary gameness for the 

 stiffest of tramps was liable to long remember 

 his second day. So surely as Joe took him out, 

 so surely would he be led to the slaughter. 



Quaking bogs, creeks, the deepest of mud, and 

 the densest of cover were his certain portion. 

 Throusfh it all the iron veteran would unflinch- 

 ingly pilot his victim, and the bag would be the 

 worst possible. Nightfall would find them three 

 or four miles deep in the roughest going, and the 



