irits on the
table. He wanted a clear head and a steady hand for the morning.

Alas! alas! The next morning presented a woful spectacle. Gray skies;
heavy and rapidly drifting clouds; pouring rain; runnels of clear water
by the side of every gravel-path; a rook or two battling with the
squally south-wester high over the wide and desolate park: the
wild-ducks at the margin of the ruffled lake flapping their wings as if
the wet was too much even for them; nearer at hand the firs and
evergreens all dripping. After breakfast the male guests wandered
disconsolately into the cold billiard-room, and began knocking the balls
about. All the loquacious cheerfulness of the major had fled. He looked
out on the wet park and the sombre woods, and sighed.

But about twelve o'clock there was a great hurry and confusion
throughout the house; for all of a sudden the skies in the west cleared;
there was a glimmer of blue; and then gleams of a pale wan light began
to stream over the landscape. There was a rash to the gun-room, and an
eager putting on of shooting-boots and leggings; there was a rapid tying
up of small packages of sandwiches; presently the wagonette was at the
door. And then away they went over the hard gravel, and out into the wet
roads, with the sunlight now beginning to light up the beautiful woods
about Crawley. The horses seemed to know there was no time to lose. A
new spirit took possession of the party. The major's face glowed as red
as the hip that here and there among the almost leafless hedges shone in
the sunlight on the ragged brier stem.

And yet it was about one o'clock before the work of the day began, for
the beaters had to be summoned from various parts, and the small boys
with the white flags--the "stops"--had to be posted so as to check
runners. And then the six guns went down over a ploughed field--half
clay and half chalk, and ankle deep--to the margin of a rapidly running
and coffee-colored stream, which three of them had to cross by means of
a very shaky plank. Lord Beauregard, Major Stuart, and Macleod remained
on this side, keeping a lookout for a straggler, but chiefly concerned
with the gradually opening and brightening sky. Then far away they heard
a slight tapping on the trees; and almost at the same moment another
sound caused the hearts of the two novices to jump. It was a quick
_cuck-cuck_, accompanied by a rapid and silken winnowing of the air.
Then an object, which seemed like a cannon-bal