o find no hold at the side
but the whispering reeds, from which, with splashings and whistling of
wings, the wild-fowl would rise up, to speed quacking and shrieking
away.

But no thoughts of danger troubled the lads as they trudged on slowly
and moodily, the deep murmur of their elders' voices being heard from
the darkness far ahead.

"Wonder what old Dave said about his powder-flask?" said Tom, suddenly
breaking the silence.

"Don't know and don't care," said Dick gruffly.

There was a pause.

"I should like to have been there and heard Old Hicky," said Tom, again
breaking the silence.

"Yah! He'd only laugh," said Dick. "He likes a bit of fun as well as
we do."

"I should have liked to see the fire fly about."

"So should I, if he'd thought it was Jacob, and given him what he calls
a blob," said Dick; "but it wasn't half a bang."

"Well, I wish now we hadn't done it," said Tom.

"Why?"

"Because Dave will be so savage. Next time we go over to his place
he'll send us back, and then there'll be no more fun at the duck 'coy,
and no netting and shooting."

"Oh, I say, Tom, what a fellow you are! Now is Dave Gittan the man to
look sour at anybody who takes him half a pound of powder? Why, he'll
smile till his mouth's open and his eyes shut, and take us anywhere."

"Well, half a pound of powder will make a difference," said Tom
thoughtfully.

"I'll take him a pound," said Dick magnificently.

"How are you going to get it?"

"How am I going to get it!" said Dick. "Why, let Sam Farles bring it
from Spalding; and I tell you what, I won't give him the pound. I'll
give him half a pound, and you shall give him the other."

"Ah!" cried Tom eagerly; "and I tell you what, Dick--you know that old
lead?"

"What! that they dug up when they made the new cow-house?"

"Yes, give him a lump of that, and we'll help him melt it down some
night, and cast bullets and slugs."

"Seems so nasty. Father said it was part of an old lead coffin that one
of the monks was buried in."

"Well, what does that matter? It was hundreds of years ago. Dave
wouldn't know."

"And if he did he wouldn't mind," said Dick. "All right! we'll take him
the lead to-morrow."

"But you haven't got the powder."

"No, but Hicky goes to Ealand to-morrow, and he can take the money to
the carrier, and we can tell Dave we've sent for it, and he knows he can
believe us, and that'll be all right."

There was another pause, during wh