OH, SHOOT! 



leveling process. Train schedules are ingen- 

 iously arranged for the benefit of innkeepers at 

 junction points, and the last named are main- 

 tained for the purpose of allowing one train 

 to escape before another can interfere with it. 



Having missed connections wherever prac- 

 tical, and taken the dogs out for a walk in 

 several towns of which we had never heard, 

 Max and I arrived, in due course, at Beaufort, 

 only twelve hours late. We were a bit weak 

 from hunger and considerably bruised from 

 futile attempts to battle our way into the 

 dining car, but otherwise we were little the 

 worse for the journey. 



The guides were waiting with the boat, but 

 they bore bad news. 



"There's plenty of geese on the banks," Ri 

 told us, "but we've had summer weather and 

 the tides are so low there's no shooting." 



Seldom does a hunter make a long trip and 

 encounter weather or game conditions that 

 are anything except unparalleled. I have 

 learned long since to anticipate the announce- 

 ment that all would have been well had I 

 arrived three weeks earlier or had I postponed 

 my coming for a similar length of time ; there- 

 fore we ignored Ri's evil tidings, pointed to 



8 



