138 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



plenty, when Garry crawled up to a flock and got three. 

 Coody retrieved them, but unfortunately they proved to 

 be tame ducks, and the owner came down on Garry. I 

 was below and kept still, hoping for a shot if anything 

 came my way. After waiting a while a mud hen got up 

 below me, flying low, and I shot. I missed the mud hen, 

 but hit Garry in the back of the leg, and he promptly 

 yelled. He had paid the man for his ducks and then 

 went around back of me, hidden by the brush, and was 

 just in time to intercept a few shot that the mud hen 

 failed to get because of its haste. The shots, some half 

 a dozen, were only under the skin in the calf of his leg, 

 and I had no trouble in taking them out with a pocket 

 knife. 



Said Garry: "It's lucky that I was below the bird, or 

 your lead would have gone in deeper." 



"What were you doing down below me and how did 

 you get there? I didn't see you. I thought you were 

 up above squaring it with the man for his tame ducks. I 

 suppose he wanted twice what they were worth." 



"No," said Garry, "he won't charge much; he trades 

 with us, and will bring me the ducks and settle to-mor- 

 row. I wouldn't like to take up a lot of tame ducks; 

 the boys would laugh. Now, see here! If you promise 

 never to tell that I shot into a flock of tame ducks I'll 

 give you my word that I won't say a word about your 

 shooting me in the leg. Is it a go?" 



"It's a go!" Garry is dead and it's a long time ago. 

 As both stories are told now for the first time, I don't see 

 that any harm is done to him. Neither of us meant to 

 do it, and after all the intention, in a shooting case, is 

 always carefully considered by a jury. 



Garry was short and stout, wore his face without hair, 

 and his teeth were stained by tobacco. I should think 



