102 CHAPTER XV. 



This same long line of trees was beaten out again toward the end 

 of the day, when in a circuit we came back to the vicinity. I recall 

 that I was on the immediate right margin, the beaters stretching straight 

 through the wood coming on a little to my left; other guns to the left 



of the trees, Judge W thirty yards to my front and thirty yards to 



my right, to pick up such wild birds as should break ahead of the line. 



A hen pheasant flushed immediately in front of me and started 

 over the trees to the left. I fired when she was possibly forty feet in 

 the air and twenty-five yards to my left front. She fell in front of the 

 line of beaters where I knew she would be picked up. 



An exclamation from my loader caused me to look toward the Judge. 

 He had his hand to his face and I thought I saw blood coming from 

 beneath it. I went quickly to him and found that a single pellet had 

 struck his cheek just below the eye and evidently severed a small artery, 

 as the blood was flowing very freely. He had picked the shot out with 

 his finger nail. 



I was naturally very greatly concerned, and asked if I had shot him ; 

 he answered "Yes, but it is not your fault. I saw where you fired 

 and you killed your bird. You were not shooting toward me at all." 

 In a genuinely sportsmanlike way he made me feel instantly that he 

 held me blameless, but I could not quite feel myself so until I had 

 gone back to look over the ground. 



What I found very greately astonished me. The man I had hit 

 occupied a position almost at right angles, just a little less than a right 

 angle to the line of my fire. In direct line with the path of the charge 

 of shot from my gun was a large oak tree. On its stem were marks 

 of shot, high up. 



No other explanation could be made than that from this hard tree, 

 one shot at least, the one which hit the Judge, had ricocheted at an 

 apparently impossible angle and penetrated his cheek. 



Our lunch was a jolly function this day, taken in an old fashioned 

 country house, presided over by the farmer who owned the farm upon 

 which it stood, and leased it to form with other holdings the shooting 

 ground where we were taking our sport. When we came to go down 

 to the motors for the homeward drive I found myself quite willing 

 to suspend operations. We had moved about a great deal from one 

 stand to another and the rest provided by the ride home was a pleasant 

 thing to contemplate and enjoy. 



