quick glance warned A--- not to plague
the old Trojan further.

All this passed in a moment; and then was seen one of those singular
things that will at times happen; but with regard to quail only, so far
as I have ever seen or heard tell. For as Forester was putting down the
card upon the powder in the barrel which he had just fired, a second
bird rose, almost from the identical spot whence the first had been so
difficultly flushed, and went off in the same direction. But not in the
least was Frank flurried now. He dropped his ramrod quietly upon the
grass, brought up his piece deliberately to his eye, and killed his bird
again.

"Excellent--excellent! Frank," said Harry again. "I never saw two
prettier shots in all my life. Nor did I ever see birds lie harder."

During all this time, amidst all the kicking of tussocks, threshing of
bog-grass, and banging of guns, and, worst of all, bouncing up of fresh
birds, from the instant when they dropped at the first shot, neither one
of Harry's dogs, nor Tom's little Dash, had budged from their down
charge. Now, however, they got up quickly, and soon retrieved all the
dead birds. "Now, then, we will divide into two parties," said Harry.
"Frank, you go with Tom; and you come with me, Commodore. It will never
do to have you two jealous fellows together, you wont kill a bird all
day," he added, in a lower voice. "That is the worst of old Tom, when he
gets jealous he's the very devil. Frank is the only fellow that can get
along with him at all. He puts me out of temper, and if we both got
angry, it would be very disagreeable. For, though he is the very best
fellow in the world, when he is in a rage he is untamable. I cannot
think what has put him out, now; for he has shot very well to-day. It is
only when he gets behindhand, that he is usually jealous in his
shooting; but he has got the deuce into him now."

By this time the two parties were perhaps forty yards apart, when Dash
came to a point again. Up got a single bird, the old cock, and flew
directly away from Tom, across Frank's face; but not for that did the
old chap pause. Up went his cannon to his shoulder, there was a flash
and a roar, and the quail, which was literally not twelve feet from him,
disappeared as if it had been resolved into thin air. The whole of Tom's
concentrated charge had struck the bird endwise, as it flew from him;
and except the extreme tips of his wings and one foot, no part of him
could be found.