376 FEATHERED GAME 
light—here into a cavern of inky blackness, 
there upon a wall glittering as with pearls and 
diamonds set in Parian marble. The never- 
quiet swell of the Atlantic heaves and falls with 
regular pulse below, and for a time all conver- 
sation is hushed in the grandeur of the scene, 
the silence only broken by the booming of the 
surf on some neighboring reef. Ere long the 
path of the moon grows paler on the water, and 
as the first faint shaft of light goes shivering 
across the wakening world the rustling wings 
of the dwellers on the waves are heard out in 
the misty, uncertain stretch of water before 
you. With straining eyes you peer over the 
gray, tumbling seas. A splash! Something 
has settled among the decoys and swimming up 
in social mood begins a chat with one of them. 
Its wooden dignity and silence discourages any 
long conversation, and before you have made 
up your mind as to which white floating object 
is the most appropriate mark for your charge 
he takes wing and disappears in the gloom, per- 
haps followed by the haphazard discharge of 
every gun in the battery. 
The east is brighter now. Rays of light are 
piercing the blackness overhead with arrowy 
