17 



last night. Amongst them were a beautiful pair of shel- 

 drakes. " I thought you might like to ^ave ^em to stuff, 

 and so I kep 'em apart/' said Mrs. Dan. On the whole, 

 things looked healthy. I would buy the sheldrakes for 

 half-a-crown more than she, asked — pop in, as it were, the 

 baccy and flat bottle as trump cards,, and win the odd trick. 

 I was relieved from all further anxiety on the subject by 

 Dan shutting one of his eyes and observing, in a mysteri- 

 ous and oracular tone (at the same time taking a trifle 

 less than half the contents of the flat bottle) that '' he 

 knowed what I was arter ; yes, yes, they all wants to go, 

 bless yer.'' (Here was the time for producing trump No. 

 2, the baccy), " Thank' e, zur, I likes a good bit of 

 baccer;" (here came the pipe — the odd trick) ''^ Well now, 

 that's what I calls a pipe, I do ; well, well, we'll see what 

 we can do, we'll see." This latter sentence was uttered 

 with a patronising air impossible to describe. Punctu- 

 ally at nine I made my appearance at the pier, and I had 

 not long to wait before Dan hove in sight. I had dressed 

 for the occasion as well as I could; that is, I had put on 

 all the coats, all the trousers, and all the boots that I 

 could find j over all I pulled an old gunning-smock of 

 Dan's, and "mounted" a catskin cap with ear flaps, 

 belonging to Ted. 



A Poole punt is too well known to need describing- 

 here; I need only say that the gun carried a pound 

 of shot. It was a beautiful night for our work — bright, 

 clear, starlight, with a slight breeze blowing in from the 

 harbour right in our faces. Had we picked it, we could 

 not have chosen a better. Dan sniffed up the air, and 

 said " He'd be bound he'd give me a shot to-night, or 

 he'd know why !" After an hour's sculling we pulled up 

 under the shade of a mud-bank up a latch. It was. 



C 



