f for missing."

"Oh, you'll soon get into the way of it," Sir Hugh said, good-naturedly.
"There's never much doing along this face."

"I'll bet Bruce is on to something," Captain Waveney exclaimed,
suddenly. In fact, only one of the ranging setters was now in sight; and
Roderick had quickly run up to the top of a heathery knoll, to have them
both in view. At the same moment they saw him hold up his arm to warn
the inattentive Venus.

"How, Venus! How, Venus!" he called, in a low voice; and immediately the
dog, observing that its companion was drawing on to a point, became
rigid.

The guns were on the scene directly; and they were just in time; for,
with a simultaneous rattle of wings that seemed to fill the air, a small
covey of birds sprang from the heather and appeared to vanish into
space. At least Lionel saw nothing of the others; his attention was
concentrated on one that seemed to be flying away in a straight line
from him; and after pausing for half a second (during which he was
calling on himself to be cool) he pulled the trigger. To his
inexpressible satisfaction the bird stopped in mid-air and came down
with a thump on the heather, where it gave but one flutter and then lay
still. He turned to see what his companions had done, with their brisk
fusillade. But he could not make out. They were still watching the
setter, that was again being encouraged to go on, lest a stray bird or
two might still be in hiding. However, the quest was fruitless. The
whole of the small covey had risen simultaneously. So Roderick picked up
the dead birds and put them on a conspicuous stone, at the same time
signalling to the gillie with the pony, who was slowly coming up. Then
the shooting-party went forward again.

"How many birds rose then?" Lionel asked of his host.

"Five."

"And you got them all?" he said, judging by what he had seen the head
keeper pick up.

"Oh, yes, we got them all. They spread out like a fan. Waveney got one
brace and I another. I suppose," he added, with a smile, "you were too
intent on your own bird to notice?"

"Yes, I was," he said, honestly; but he was none the less elated, for he
knew that a good beginning would give him confidence.

And it did. They were soon at a part of the moor where the fun grew fast
and furious; and, keeping as close as he could to certainties, or what
looked like certainties, he was doing fairly well. As for the other two,
he could only judge of their prowess by t