292 DUCK SHOOTING. 



to kill two with the second, and, catching up the eight- 

 gauge, I stopped two others as they started out of the 

 decoys. 



After a look around and seeing nothing on the wing, 

 I sat on the edge of the box for a while, when a low 

 k-r-r-r-k from the lower part of the decoys caused me 

 to look quietly that way. A single brant was swim- 

 ming through the rig. It is strange how sometimes 

 they will come up and alight when you are sitting up, 

 and at other times you cannot get them near decoys 

 when you are hidden well. I made sure of gathering 

 in our solitary friend, for I wanted to get out of the 

 thirteen hole. 



Soon another flock came in sight, off shore, and I 

 got down in the box to watch them. I wished they 

 would not get around so far back of me, for this 

 turning one's self into a corkscrew by trying to peek 

 backwards in a battery is not agreeable. They did not 

 show up on the other side of the box for some time, but 

 at last I saw them up to the windward. They had 

 dropped in, and were going to swim in to the beach. 

 There was nothing to do but to lie close. Five minutes 

 passed and an old black duck came over the box and 

 looked down in my face. I imagined I could detect 

 a leer in his cunning old eyes, as if he knew I would not 

 shoot at him with those brant coming down. It 

 seemed to me as if by this time the brant must have 

 drifted down before the heavy wind. I rolled over a 

 little and looked and saw one swimming down just 

 outside the decoys, and the rest were almost at the head 



