"What are we going to do to-morrow, Rabah?" Chebron asked after the
meal was concluded.

"I have arranged for to-morrow, if such is your pleasure, my lord,
that you shall go fowling. A boat will take you along the lake to a
point about three miles off where the best sport is to be had; then
when the day is over it will carry you on another eight miles to the
place I spoke to you of where good sport was to be obtained. I shall
meet you on your landing there, and will have everything in readiness
for you."

"That will do well," Chebron said. "Amuba and Jethro, you will, of
course, come with me."

As soon as it was daylight Rabah led Chebron down to the lake, and the
lad with Amuba and Jethro entered the boat, which was constructed of
rushes covered with pitch and drew only two or three inches of water.
Two men with long poles were already in the boat; they were fowlers by
profession, and skilled in all the various devices by which the
waterfowl were captured. They had, during the night, been preparing
the boat for the expedition by fastening rushes all round it; the
lower ends of these dipped into the water, the upper ends were six
feet above it, and the rushes were so thickly placed together as to
form an impenetrable screen.

The boat was square at the stern, and here only was there an opening a
few inches wide in the rushes to enable the boatman standing there to
propel the boat with his pole. One of the men took his station here,
the other at the bow, where he peered through a little opening between
the rushes, and directed his comrade in the stern as to the course he
should take. In the bottom of the boat lay two cats who, knowing that
their part was presently to come, watched all that was being done with
an air of intelligent interest. A basket well stored with provisions,
and a jar of wine, were placed on board, and the boat then pushed
noiselessly off.

Parting the reeds with their fingers and peeping out, the boys saw
that the boat was not making out into the deeper part of the lake, but
was skirting the edge, keeping only a few yards out from the band of
rushes at its margin.

"Do you keep this distance all the way?" Chebron asked the man with
the pole.

The man nodded.

"As long as we are close to the rushes the waterfowl do not notice our
approach, while were we to push out into the middle they might take
the alarm; although we often do capture them in that way, but in that
case we get to windwa