112 WARWICK WOODLANDS. 



"Oh! run back, Timothy run back!" here Archer inter- 

 rupted him " we don't want you this afternoon. Harness the 

 nags and pack the wagon, and put them to, at five we shall 

 be at home by then, for we intend to be at Tom's to-night. 

 Now look out, Frank, those three last quail we marked in from 

 the hill dropped in the next field, where the ragwort stands so 

 thick ; and five to one, as there is a thin growth of brushwood 

 all down this wall side, they will have run down hither. Why, 

 man alive ! you've got no copper caps on !" 



" By George ! no more I have 1 took them off when I laid 

 down my gun in the house, and forgot to repliice them.'' 



" And a very dangerous thing you did in taking them off, 

 permit me to assure you. Any one but a fool, or a very young 

 child, knows at once that a gun with caps on is loaded. You 

 leave yours on the table without caps, and in comes some med- 

 dling chap or other, puts on one to try the locks, or to frighten 

 his sweetheart, or for some other no less sapient purpose, and 

 off it goes ! and if it kill no one, it's God's mercy ! Never do 

 that again, Frank !" 



Meanwhile they had arrived within ten yards of the low 

 rickety stone Avail, skirted by a thin fringe of saplings, in which 

 Archer expected to find game Grouse, never in what might be 

 called exact command, had disappeared beyond it. 



" Hold up, good dogs !" cried Harry, and as he spoke away 

 went Shot and Chase the red dog, some three yards ahead, 

 jumped on the wall, and, in the act of bounding over it, saw 

 Grouse at point beyond. Rigid as stone he stood upon that 

 tottering ridge, one hind foot drawn up in the act of pointing, 

 for both the fore were occupied in clinging to some trivial ine- 

 qualities of the rough coping, his feathery flag erect, his black 

 eye fixed, and his lip slavering ; for so hot was the scent that it 

 reached his exquisitely fashioned organs, though Grouse was 

 many feet advanced between him and the game. Shot backed 

 at the wall-foot, seeing the red dog only, and utterly uncon- 

 scious that the pointer had made the game beyond. 



"By Jove! but that is beautiful !" exclaimed the Commo- 

 dore. " That is a perfect picture ! the very perfection of 

 steadiness and breaking." 



They crossed the wall, and poor Shot, in the rear, saw them 

 no more ; his instinct strongly, aye ! naturally, tempted him to 

 break in, but second nature, in the shape of discipline, prevailed ; 

 and, though he trembled with excitement, he moved not an inch. 



