H The Wild-Fowlers 



will light among the stool. Let 'em do 

 it; don't you shoot till I tell you till the 

 great mass has gone by. Then kill a rear 

 bird in the last bunch, and with your sec- 

 ond barrel I shall look for you to stop one 

 of the blackduck that will get away from 

 the decoys. I '11 try for redhead and 

 broadbill. The brant won't come in at 

 all, so we need n't bother about them." 



" Are you sure there are brant there, 

 Doctor ? I thought brant frequented the 

 bay only in early spring March and 

 April," and Peritus brought his gun a 

 handsome double fowling-piece of twelve- 

 gauge out from the hay and stuck the 

 muzzles through the blind grass, his 

 companion having already adjusted his 

 favorite arm a ten-gauge of full nine 

 pounds. 



The Doctor did not answer, but instead 

 signalled his young friend in pantomime 

 familiar to companion gunners to keep 

 quiet and well down. A pair of sprigtails 

 approached from the rear and went over 



