376 FEATHERED GAME 



light here into a cavern of inky blackness, 

 there upon a wall glittering as with pearls and 

 diamonds set in Parian marble. The never- 

 quiet swell of the Atlantic heaves and falls with 

 regular pulse below, and for a time all conver- 

 sation is hushed in the grandeur of the scene, 

 the silence only broken by the booming of the 

 surf on some neighboring reef. Ere long the 

 path of the moon grows paler on the water, and 

 as the first faint shaft of light goes shivering 

 across the wakening world the rustling wings 

 of the dwellers on the waves are heard out in 

 the misty, uncertain stretch of water before 

 you. With straining eyes you peer over the 

 gray, tumbling seas. A splash! Something 

 has settled among the decoys and swimming up 

 in social mood begins a chat with one of them. 

 Its wooden dignity and silence discourages any 

 long conversation, and before you have made 

 up your mind as to which white floating object 

 is the most appropriate mark for your charge 

 he takes wing and disappears in the gloom, per- 

 haps followed by the haphazard discharge of 

 every gun in the battery. 



The east is brighter now. Bays of light are 

 piercing the blackness overhead with arrowy 



