WARWICK WOODLANDS. 79 



Archer encouraging the eager spaniels " Hie cock ! hie cock ! 

 pu-r-r-h !" till the woods rang to the clear shout. 



Scarce had I reached the top, before, as I looked down into 

 the glen below me, a puff of white smoke, instantly succeeded 

 by a second, and the loud full reports of both his barrels from 

 among the green-leafed alders, showed me that Tom had sprung 

 game. The next second I heard the sharp questing of the 

 spaniel Dan, followed by Harry's " Charge ! down Cha-arge, 

 you little thief down to cha-arge, will you !" 



But it was all in vain for on he went furious and fast, and 

 the next moment the thick whirring of a grouse reached my 

 excited ears. Carefully, eagerly, I gazed out to mark the wary 

 bird ; but the discharge of Harry's piece assured me, as I 

 thought, that further watch was needless ; and stupidly enough 

 I dropped the muzzle of my gun. 



Just at the self-same point of time " Mark ! mark, Frank !" 

 shouted Archer, " mark ! there are a brace of them !" and as 

 he spoke, gliding with speed scarcely inferior to a bullet's flight 

 upon their balanced pinions, the noble birds swept past me, so 

 close that I could have struck them with a riding whip. 



Awfully fluttered was I I confess but by a species of in- 

 voluntary and instinctive consideration I rallied instantly, and 

 became cool. The grouse had seen me, and wheeled diverse ; 

 one darting to the right, through a small opening between a 

 cedar bush and a tali hemlock the other skimming through 

 the open oak woods a little toward the left. 



At such a crisis thought comes in a second's space ; and I 

 have often fancied that in times of emergency or great surprise, 

 a man deliberates more promptly, and more prudently withal, 

 than when he has full time to let his second thought trench on 

 his first and mar it. So was it in this case with me. At half a 

 glance I saw, that if I meant to get both birds, the right-hand 

 fugitive must be the first, and that with all due speed ; for but 

 a few yards further he would have gained a brake which would 

 have laughed to scorn Lord Kennedy or Harry T r. 



Pitching my gun up to my shoulder, both barrels loaded 

 with Eley's red wire cartridge No. 6, I gave him a snap shot, 

 and had* the satisfaction of seeing him keeled well over, not 

 wing-tipped or leg-broken, but fairly riddled by the concentrated 

 charge of something within thirty yards. Turning as quick as 

 light, I caught a fleet sight of the other, which by a rapid 

 zig-zag was now flying full across my front, certainly over 



