254 Sporting Sketches 



then he went to his place and backed out with the 

 paddle. 



" Put decoy dur," he remarked as we neared 

 a long point of reeds, and soon the dozen lures 

 were riding to their weighted cords. Then the 

 canoe was forced her length into the reeds, a 

 bunch of the tough stems was tightly twisted round 

 the middle thwart at either side, and the late sensi- 

 tive craft was as steady as a floor. " Bess stan 

 up no fall deep dur," he instructed ; then we 

 changed places, and I could stand at ease with eyes 

 just above the cover. The picture was most inter- 

 esting. Immediately in front was the open channel 

 with the decoys shifting and nodding to the breeze 

 in a most lifelike manner. Forty yards away, 

 another wall of reeds, and beyond that a brown, 

 quivering level of foliage which seemed to extend to 

 the horizon, and above the brown, in half-a-dozen 

 directions, streamed swift fowl in long flocks, small 

 groups, and pairs, while every few minutes sounded 

 a dull rump ! rump ! which told that Thompson 

 and Monroe were having a lively time somewhere 

 in the sunlit waste. 



" Blue bill ! " grunted Batteese, and there was a 

 hollow humming, and a single duck "cut down " in 

 the beautiful method of a bluebill stooping from a 

 great height to decoys. It struck the water with a 

 spat and bounced with cork-like buoyancy. Batteese 

 gave it one glance and grunted, " Dead." In a 

 moment he added, " Crow dook," and I saw a line 

 of very large foul heading straight for the point. 

 Cormorants being fishier than a political deal, the 

 sable array was allowed to sweep "past upon their 

 fry-destroying mission. 



