WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
in that pause, whatever they may do afterwards, 
for, as it were, a gasp goes up from the woods 
as though a life had been taken ; and the man 
feels that something which took a long time 
to make something enormously larger and 
stronger than he has gone down before his 
puniness. 
So no one said anything for a minute, but as 
the men walked along the giant's- fallen length 
they came to the battered nest, and, flung beside 
it under the branches, the shapeless remains 
of two of the young herons. But the third 
fledgling lay a little apart, and Cornelius 
Geoghegan stooped over him with curiosity. 
To all appearance he lay as limply as his 
brothers, but as the hand was almost touching 
him, Andy Hogan caught a subtle gleam in the 
half-closed eye. 
" Mind out, sorr," he exclaimed, and thrust 
Geoghegan aside. He was just in time, the 
neck straightened with a jerk, and the bill, 
long as a poignard and almost as sharp, shot up 
towards Geoghegan's face, but missing its 
mark ripped a red streak across his hand. He 
sprang back with a curse, and the heron calling 
harshly fluttered away. 
Geoghegan walked off wrapping a handker- 
chief round his bleeding hand. When he 
had gone the men all agreed with Andy 
214 
