.

At ten o'clock next morning we met the keepers, dogs, and beaters not
far from the first line of butts on the moor. There was a hot sun, and
the bees were bumbling in the heather. Somehow Whitehall seemed a long
way off.

The number of guns had been brought up to seven by the inclusion of a
neighbouring laird--one Gilmerton of Nethercraigs--and his son.

"All the same, we are still a man short," complained the Admiral, to
whom a house-party was a ship's company, and a day's shooting a sort of
terrestrial naval manoeuvre. "However, we will cut out the end butt in
each drive and put a stop there to turn the birds farther in. Now we'll
draw for places. Each man to take the butt whose number he draws,
counting from the right and moving up one place after each drive. And
Heaven help the man who draws number four now, for it means number seven
and a climb up The Pimple for him directly after lunch!"

There was a general laugh at this, which swelled to an unseemly roar
when I drew the fatal number.

However, after lunch was a long way off, and I trotted contentedly to
number four and settled down to a pipe, while the head-keeper led off
his mixed multitude of assistants, dogs, boys, and red flags to make a
_detour_ and work the game up towards us.

The first drive was simple. We were in a long and rather shallow glen,
across which ran a low ridge, dividing it into two almost equal
sections. The butts were placed along this ridge; and after the birds
had been sent over us the beaters would work round to the other end of
the glen and drive them back again. The shooting would be easy, for the
ground lay flat and open in either direction.

I found myself between Standish and Gerald; the former on my right, and
the latter, together with the young keeper to whom his shooting
education had been entrusted, in the butt on my left. Beyond Standish
was Dermott, the crack shot of the party, and beyond Dermott, in number
one butt, was the Admiral. The Gilmertons, _pere et fils_, occupied the
butts on the extreme left.

The drive was moderately successful. At first the birds came along
singly, mostly on the right, and fell an easy prey to Dermott and the
Admiral. But presently a great pack got up comparatively near the butts,
and fairly "rushed" us. I brought off an easy right and left straight in
front of me, and then, snapping out my cartridges and slipping another
in, I swung round and just managed to bring down a third bir