68 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



hundred times," laughed Max, as he looked first into the 

 tub and then all round my " blind " for the missing fowl. 



I declared that had my shells been good the tub 

 would not have been sufficiently large to have held the 

 duck I should have slain. The German smiled somewhat 

 cynically, reminding me the while that a bad workman 

 has a little knack of grumbhng at his tools. A few hours 

 later, however, I proved my statement regarding the 

 worthlessness of the cartridges to be true, for upon 

 trying them at a wooden roof -shingle, at twenty-five 

 yards, the shot-pellets scarcely pitted the same ; whereas 

 one of the German's shells when fired from my old 10- 

 bore at forty paces smashed the shingle into splinters. 



" I tink in dat case it vas de tools and not the vork- 

 man who vas to blame," said Burg, as he examined the 

 contents of one of the faulty shells. " But, mein Gott, 

 who can tell ? " slyly added he, with a grin, " dere is 

 always a man behind ze gun dat shoots crooked." 



