"

"What sort?" whispered Dick excitedly.

"All sorts, lad: widgeons, teal, mallards, and some pochards. Only
mind, if you say a word aloud, or let that theer dog bark, we sha'n't
get a duck."

Dick clapped his hand over his mouth, as if to ensure silence, and Tom
compressed his lips.

"Come along, then, boys, and I'll set yow wheer yow can look through a
hole in one o' the screens and see all the fun."

"But can't we help, Dave?" asked Tom.

"Help, lad! no, not till the ducks are in the net. Then you may. Now,
not a word, and come on."

Dave led the way to the little house, where he filled his pockets with
barley and oats mixed, out of a rough box, and as he did so he pointed
to one corner which had been gnawed.

"Been charming of it," he whispered. "Eats! Now come, quiet-like;" and
he stepped out and into a narrow path leading through the dense alder
wood, and in and out over patches of soft earth which quivered and felt
like sponges beneath their feet.

Dave glanced back at them sharply two or three times when a rustling
sound was made, and signed to them to be careful. Then once he stopped
in a wider opening and tossed up a feather or two, as if to make sure of
the way the wind blew. Apparently satisfied, he bent towards the two
lads and whispered:

"I'm going to the second pipe. Come quiet. Not a word, and when I mak'
room for you, peep through the screen for a minute, and then come away."

The boys nodded, and followed in silence through a part of the alder
wood which was not quite so dense, for here and there patches of tall
reeds had grown out of a watery bed, and now stood up seven or eight
feet high and dry and brown.

Then all at once Dave stopped and looked back at them with a sly kind of
grin upon his face, as he pointed down to a strong net stretched loosely
over some half hoops of ash, whose ends were stuck down tightly in the
soft ground so as to form a tunnel about two feet wide.

This was over the soft earth, upon which lay the end of the net, tied
round with a piece of cord. A few yards farther on, however, this first
net was joined to another, and the tunnel of network was arched over a
narrow ditch full of water, and this ditch gradually increased in width
as the man led on, and ran in a curve, along whose outer or convex side
they were proceeding.

Before long, as the bent-over willows spanned the ditch or "pipe," as it
was called, the net ceased to come down quite to th