184 The Amateur Poacher 



made straight away from the territories we could 

 beat into those that were jealously guarded by a 

 certain keeper with whom Farmer ' Willum ' had 

 waged war for years. ' Come on ! ' shouted Orion as 

 soon as he had marked the cock down in a mound 

 two fields away. Throwing him my gun, I leaped 

 the brook ; and we at first raced, but on second 

 thoughts walked slowly, for the mound. Running 

 disturbs accuracy of fire, and a woodcock was much 

 too rare a visitor for the slightest chance to be lost. 



As we approached we considered that very pro- 

 bably the cock would either lie close till we had 

 walked past, and get up behind, or he would rise out 

 of gunshot. What we were afraid of was his making 

 for the preserves, which were not far off. So we 

 tossed for the best position, and I lost. I had there- 

 fore to get over on the side of the hedge towards the 

 preserves and to walk down somewhat faster than 

 Orion, who w^as to keep (on his side) about thirty 

 yards behind. The object was to flush the cock on 

 his side, so that if missed the bird might return 

 towards our territories. In a double-mound like this 

 it is impossible to tell what a woodcock will do, but 

 this was the best thing we could think of 



About half-way down the hedge I heard Orion 

 fire both barrels in quick succession — the mound was 



