Part 14 (1/2)

In those days nobody thought of standing gun to shoulder, as is the present custom The rule was, ”stock below elbow”

”Ready,” said he in his dry incisive voice

”Ready,” repeated the trap puller at his elbow

”Pull!” coan to revolve rapidly; after a lass ball, projected violently upward, sailed away through the air The mechanism of the trap was such that no one could tell precisely how long it would revolve before springing; nor in what direction it would throw the target Nevertheless the mark offered would now, in coet, be considered easy

Mr Newed it apparently with one ht A roar of the noisy black powder shook the air The glass sphere seemed actually to puff out in fine smoke Only the feathers it had contained floated doind

”Dead!” announced the referee in a brisk business-like voice

Mr Newun and flipped the empty yellow shell into the box next hiroup Bobby snuffed it eagerly He thought it the most delicious smell in the world; and so continued to think it for many years until the nitros displaced the old-fashi+oned compounds Four times Mr Newmark repeated his initial performance; then stepped aside

”Heinzman to shoot; Wellman on deck!” announced the scorer

Mr Heinzan to break open a box of shells Mr Newun barrels into one of the pails and with the hickory wiper puood snap-shot,” Bobby heard a er, in a half-voice

”Has a brilliant style,” commented the other

They fell into a low-toned conversation on the partridge season, and the ducks, to which Bobby listened with all his ears, the while his eyesof what took place before hi had ceased Shooter's etiquette prohibited anything that even by reht ”rattle” the contestants Only the voices of the _ of the black powder Bobby liked to listen to the referee

Reporting, as he did, hundreds of results in the course of the afternoon, his intonation became mechanical

”Dead!” he snapped in the crispest, shortest syllable, when the glass ball was broken by the charge

”Law-s-s-t!” he drahen the little sphere sailed away unhar of five, swabbed out his gun, leaned it against the rack, and went to squat in the group where he commented to his friends on his own or others' luck, but always quietly

An air of the strictest business held the entire assehtly when Mr Kincaid's nah the crowd; and some one called out,

”Go it, Old Reliable Have you had any hoops put around her lately?”

Mr Kincaid grinned good-naturedly, but made no reply He had discarded his coat; and noore a brown cardigan jacket He took his place with the greatest deliberation, consu twice as much time as any one else

”Ready,” said he

”Ready,” replied the trapper mechanically

”Pool!” cried Mr Kincaid

The discharge delayed so long that Bobby looked to see if a misfire had occurred; but when the ball reached the exact top of its swing, Mr

Kincaid broke it

”One of the hbour to the stranger ”He shoots just like that, always Never in a hurry; but he seearessed with almost the precision of ahis eyes to hear the regular _ready, pull, bang!_ that ress of the score Frorasses of late su puffs of hot air, the drift of pungent aro of the stalks as though fairies were running over them when the breezelets passed It was all very pleasant and, for the tiot his disappointment