Picked from the Prairie Province 241 



tridge, you find um, hey ? " " No him los'," re- 

 torted the dusky one. "Him run no find 

 'cept snow. Track den." 



We had not travelled a mile before three pinnated 

 grouse, coming from a distance, glanced on set 

 wings across the trail, and pitched in some cover 

 not more than waist high. This meant a royal 

 chance, for in such shelter, especially just after a 

 longish flight, the " chicken " is apt to lie very close. 

 Unluckily they flushed together, so all I could do 

 was tumble a brace. The quick flash of Batteese's 

 snowy teeth told that the comparatively easy 

 double had won him, and this was no unimportant 

 matter, because it meant an enthusiastic instead of 

 an indifferent punter when once we had got among 

 the ducks. A brace of ruffed grouse, killed in the 

 snappy, heavy-cover style learned in the forested 

 East, completed the winning of Batteese ; then we 

 passed the last of the cover and rolled out upon the 

 open plain. 



" Dook dur!" growled Batteese, after a while, 

 and he pulled up. " All hands out and prepare for 

 war," whispered Monroe ; " there's a little slough 

 beyond the rise just ahead. I'll go right, Thompson 

 left, and you slip along the trail." I watched the 

 big bent backs, and, when finally Monroe waved his 

 hand, moved warily ahead. As I topped the rising 

 ground, I saw some fifty yards below a small pond 

 ringed with lush growths, at the edge of which the 

 trail passed. Monroe and Thompson were skirmish- 

 ing toward the common centre, and at the moment 

 a big ripple showed on one side of the slough and a 

 dark mass went into the cover. Nearer and nearer 



