SHOOTING THE WOODS GROUSE 363 



seemed to know all about such places, and at once 

 started up the leeward side of the ravine with slow 

 and cautious trot, while the younger, named Frank, 

 seemed to have an intuition that the other dog knew 

 more than he did, and slowed down his pace to about 

 the same. And soon Jack's trot subsided to a walk 

 as his nose caught the faint breeze that played over 

 the shady side of the hollow, and his tail slackened 

 its lashing motion and settled down to a slow wavy 

 swing. Quietly he moved along, with nose upraised 

 just above the deep green of the ferns and prairie grass 

 and the bright golden hue of the lady-slippers and the 

 carmine of the wild peas, raising it from time to time 

 still higher, with inquiring sniff, and swinging steadily 

 off to the leeward so as to keep the breeze fairly in 

 his nose all the time. And soon the old dog's tail began 

 to straighten and the joints of his legs to stiffen, and 

 he turned his head slowly from side to side, and snuffed 

 the air more cautiously as he moved, more and more 

 slowly, along. And all the time Frank coming up 

 the other slope, some hundred yards away, with eyes 

 fixed intently upon Jack, imitating all his movements, 

 even more strongly than if he had smelt something 

 himself, instead of taking Jack's word for it. 



Suddenly Jack stops, and as suddenly Frank does 

 the same, and at the same instant a line of mingled 

 white, black and gray, with roaring wings enveloping 

 the whole in a haze of brown, bursts from the rank 

 ferns some ten yards ahead of the dog and darts like 

 an arrow through the green arcade. 



