rd of the flock we want to reach, and then drift
down slowly upon them, but we shall get more sport now by keeping
close in. The birds are numerous, and you will soon be at work."

In five minutes the man at the bow motioned his passengers that they
were approaching a flock of waterfowl. Each of them took up his bow
and arrows and stood in readiness, while the man in the stern used his
pole even more quickly and silently than before. Presently at a signal
from his comrades he ceased poling. All round the boat there were
slight sounds--low contented quackings, and fluttering of wings, as
the birds raised themselves and shook the water from their backs.
Parting the rushes in front of them, the two lads and Jethro peeped
through them.

They were right in the middle of a flock of wildfowl who were feeding
without a thought of danger from the clump of rushes in their midst.
The arrows were already in their notches, the rushes were parted a
little further, and the three shafts were loosed. The twangs of the
bows startled the ducks, and stopping feeding they gazed at the rushes
with heads on one side. Three more arrows glanced out, but this time
one of the birds aimed at was wounded only, and uttering a cry of pain
and terror it flapped along the surface of the water.

[Illustration: C. of B. FOWLING WITH THE THROWING-STICK.--Page 111.]

Instantly, with wild cries of alarm, the whole flock arose, but before
they had fairly settled in their flight, two more fell pierced with
arrows. The cats had been standing on the alert, and as the cry of
alarm was given leaped overboard from the stern, and proceeded to
pick up the dead ducks, among which were included that which had at
first flown away, for it had dropped in the water about fifty yards
from the boat. A dozen times the same scene was repeated until some
three score ducks and geese lay in the bottom of the boat. By this
time the party had had enough of sport, and had indeed lost the
greater part of their arrows, as all which failed to strike the bird
aimed at went far down into the deep mud at the bottom and could not
be recovered.

"Now let the men show us their skill with their throwing-sticks,"
Chebron said. "You will see they will do better with them than we with
our arrows."

The men at once turned the boat's head toward a patch of rushes
growing from the shallow water a hundred yards out in the lake.
Numbers of ducks and geese were feeding round it, and the whole