THE DUCKS AT LAST. Ill 



Scarcely had the five been disposed of until here came three. They 

 met the fate of their preceding brethren and were followed in turn 

 by four. Then a lone duck. Then five again, and five and four. So on 

 for fifteen minutes. Then Albert's horn blew, calling forth its answer 

 from the hill. The flight ceased and the guns changed position, number 

 one becoming number two, that is all giving way from right to left 

 one down. It was hot and heavy while it lasted. Our instructions 

 were not to wait for the other man in this kind of shooting, but to fire 

 at our own discretion when a bird was in range. 



What happened during the first period was repeated in the second, 

 and done over in the third. All of the glamour and charm and seductive 

 allure of pass shooting was present in this form of sport. I could not 

 shake off the feeling that the ducks would stop coming, that every 

 one I saw headed toward the lake was the last one. But they kept on 

 and on and on and on until we stopped for luncheon. 



Allen, the butler from the Castle, .and his troop of footman satellites, 

 had set up trestles and laid a damask-draped table in the open ground, 

 roofed only by the gray sky. Here the five hungry sportsmen sat 

 down to a piping hot array of luscious viands, which completed by 

 some rare old Port and an exceptional quality Havana left us in almost 

 too good humor to care for more shooting. 



However, I did not notice anybody flunking a shot when we were 

 back on the lake and the ducks had recommenced their descent upon 

 us. There was no change in the general program, but those of you 

 who have shot ducks will know that there was that infinite variety 

 which duck-shooting only can give. 



Every one was different from the one which preceded it. This one 

 was high, sixty yards and straight over you ; that at a less altitude 

 was passing swiftly to your right ; this was circling and climbing in 

 your rear; the other dipping toward the surface of the lake; the next 

 rising straight up with frantically beating wings. 



At four o'clock the horn blew from the hilltop a prolonged blast as 

 a token that the last duck had taken wing. There were a few cripples 

 to pick up, but only a few, because fifteen or twenty gillies had been 

 about the lake all day, gathering from shore and boat the dead and 

 wounded ducks. When the bag was laid out upon the shore for count- 

 ing in lines of twenty-five we found an even 650. A few more were 

 picked up later. 



