A MOENING ON THE MARSHES 331 



were transferred from the magazines to bags and given 

 to the bailiff's sons, who eagerly volunteered to carry 

 the slain, ammunition, etc. The 12-bores were next 

 taken from their cases, and, accompanied by the bearers 

 and a brace of well-broken, black, curly-coated retrievers, 

 my host and myself set out across the marshes to kill 

 something. 



" You'd best work along the dykes afore trying the 

 fleets, gentlemen, for I know there be a tidy few duck in 

 the reedy dykes, and any birds you do miss will certain 

 sure make for the fleets." 



Young Togood's remark, though unsolicited, was 



wise. H and myself, therefore, separated, he electing 



to try a wide sedge-fringed boundary dyke which ran 

 into the head of the big fleet, while I took old Grouse 

 to work a somewhat smaller irrigation channel that 

 wormed its serpentine course along the base of the sea- 

 wall. 



I had not yet arrived at my dyke when the double 



report of H 's gun rang out, awakening the dead 



silence that reigned over the marshes, for the morning was 

 still very young and not even the bark of a shepherd's 

 dog or the lowing of a cow was to be heard. 



Looking in the direction whence the firing proceeded, 

 I saw four duck, one of them evidently hard hit, heading 

 straight for a gateway through which I happened to be 

 passing. Now, even the keenest sighted and most wary 

 of wildfowl will sometimes approach within shot of a man 

 standing by a gate-post, though a good portion of his 



