OF SHOOTING AND FISHING 81 
being closely associated with one who lacked a fine 
sense in this matter. I was not thinking of the 
man who, carried away by the sport, might forget 
to count to a bird the number killed; or of a sen- 
sitive man, like S., who, having the limit, would 
put a wounded bird out of pain—far be it from me. 
I was thinking of the man who would deliberately 
keep on shooting, knowing that his limit had been 
reached. Strange as it may seem, these were ex- 
actly the same thoughts that were in the breast of 
the Denver man. Together we climbed the central 
tower, and going out on the roof, looked over the 
starlit scene. For a time neither spoke, but we 
listened in silence to the life of the swamps. Then 
my partner remarked that it was sad to think of 
how many ducks would die the following day. He 
seemed a good deal worried about it and was ob- 
viously relieved when I replied that at any rate 
there would not be any indiscriminate slaughter, 
as the just laws of the State were very well en- 
forced in this matter, if not in some others, and 
that the life of the twenty-sixth duck was much 
safer than his own in this particular neighbour- 
hood. How pleased he seemed, and with what 
warmth he grasped my hand! 
We now descended to the others, and I told Hol- 
den how fortunate I had been in the partner I 
had drawn. It was against the law to shoot ducks 
after sundown and I heard of three men who were 
nicely caught by the game warden the year before 
on Utah Lake. There had not been any flight that 
evening until the sun went down, but these three 
