194 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



ground all over.' ' I beg your pardon, I am quite 

 sure of my count ; so just look with me carefully close 

 round the butt, where a bird often gets left. Here he 

 Jies, down a deep rift in the peat, in a little stagnant 

 pool of brown water, which is why he had no scent, 

 almost hidden by overhanging heather, not five yards 

 from the butt ; so there is our correct number. You 

 can see from this the value of accurate counting, for 

 without me you would certainly have gone away 

 satisfied you had picked all up, and left that last 

 bird to rot.' 



As we have not been called on yet by our host, we 

 might just look at where the second of those two 

 settled in front, for the one which ran on to the stone 

 and got away was not the bird you fired at settling. 

 I thought not, and there to our joy is the other one, 

 not quite dead, crouching deep under the thick 

 heather, and found very prettily by the dog. That 

 was lucky, I thought you had missed him, for he 

 seemed to drop all right into the heather. 



So we have made it up to twenty-nine, a fair good 

 drive, and though your shooting was really very good, 

 you must remember that on several occasions you 

 missed the chance of easily getting more, merely by 

 undue hurry, or not making the most of the position. 



Now we shift across, and rather uphill, about two 



