his part of
the world the wild-fowl are seldom if ever disturbed, and hence are far
less suspicious than when they are near to civilization. If these
honkers suspected anything at all now, they did no more than
occasionally lift their heads and crane their long necks around. They
could see nothing, because their pursuers were all crouched low beneath
the tops of the grasses.

The Aleut boy kept on his stealthy approach--little by little--until
finally he was within thirty or forty yards of the edge of the water,
along which the great wild-fowl were scattered. Rob nudged him to get up
and throw, but Skookie knew his own business better. Without uttering a
sound he crawled forward rapidly a few paces, on his hands and knees,
then sprang to his feet and ran rapidly through the grass toward the
edge of the water, uttering the while wild whoops as he began to swing
the thongs about his head.

"Look out!" cried John. "They'll all get away! Why don't he throw?"

But Skookie did not undertake to throw so long as the geese were on the
ground. He knew that the young geese were weak and not used to flight,
and that even at its best a wild goose is slow and heavy to take wing.

[Illustration: THE ALEUT BOY LAUNCHED HIS MISSILE INTO THE MASS OF
FLYING FOWL]

All these geese, some scores of young and old, intermingled, now began
to scream, squawk, and honk, and clumsily to take wing as best they
could. Thus they rose in a confused brown mass, almost in the face of
the young hunter, who advanced rapidly, whirling the weighted cords
about his head. At precisely the right instant, and not upset by the
sudden clamor of the rising fowl, the Aleut boy straightened his arm in
front of him and launched his missile with precision into the very
middle of the flapping mass of flying fowl.

The execution done was perhaps no more than he expected, but as the
white boys saw his success they broke into a cheer. As the startled
flock screamed and honked away, down came two of the fowl, one with
broken wing and another laid fair about the neck by the gripping cords
which had encircled it. Before they could escape, all the boys were
after them, plunging into the mud and water, careless of anything but
their game. They found that one of their geese was an old gander, but
the other was a fat young bird, which John fondled with the utmost
interest.

"I'll bet you this one'll be good to eat!" said he. "Let's go back and
see how it goes."

"I wo