210 THE LAST DAY AT GHEE- II A. 



with the gun, and how far your companions gave 

 you credit for skill, with the weapon which you 

 seem to have used so freely. 



Most readily will Venator answer you with only 

 this condition that if he speaks the truth (and in 

 fact he knows not how to lie), you will not accuse 

 him of playing the braggart when he answers your 

 inquiry by a truthful statement of facts. 



It seems to him that he has already incidentally 

 answered the question propounded to him ; but, if 

 the reader of these sporting anecdotes still desires 

 to know whether the writer of them was esteemed 

 a good shot among his sporting companions and 

 to have a categorical reply then the answer must 

 be in the affirmative : for none of them can remem- 

 ber ever having beaten him ! He has frequently 

 made even or proportional scores with them but, 

 since the age of fifteen, he never has been beaten ! 

 IBis forte lay in quick firing ; and it resulted from 

 this, that in deer-hunting F , he was eminently success- 

 ful ; when the chance was fair, he seldom had occa- 

 sion to fire his second barrel. 



In shooting birds on the wing say snipes or 

 partridges his average scale of shooting was, to bag 

 eighty-four to the hundred ! He seldom killed 

 more than nine birds without a miss. His best 

 shooting was made when he was sixty-five years of 



