ENGLISH DRIVING 193 



of these not counted, which will probably rise again. 

 Well, we must pick them all up. Now we have 

 gathered twenty-one, and your loader has the far-off bird 

 which makes twenty-two. Wait a moment till he re- 

 joins us and is out of the way, and we will try for the 

 three in the burn. Now be ready with your gun, and 

 mind to work your dog up to them from this side, for 

 right and left and behind us are men all over the 

 place picking up, and unless we drive him away in the 

 forward direction you will not be able to shoot safely. 

 Ah, I see the dog winds him ; look out, there he is, 

 and safely killed without trouble. One of the others 

 proves to be winged, and to have run a long way down 

 the burn till he is gathered right behind No. 3, but 

 though the latter looks rather askance at us for being 

 off our own ground, the bird was fairly footed by the 

 dog all the way from where he fell. The third is 

 lying stone dead in a little pool, so now we have 

 twenty-five ; but stay, we had almost forgotten the 

 two you killed right away in front, as they were turn- 

 ing back. Now we have got both of them, though 

 the second took the dog a hundred yards down the 

 gully, leaving a long track of feathers like the ' scent ' 

 of a paper chase on the tops of the heather. But 

 where have we left the twenty-eighth ? ' We must 

 have been mistaken,' you say, 'for we have hunted the 



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