CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A DECOY DESCRIBED.

The following morning, with Burdale as a guide, Long Sam and Jack set
off to visit the decoy which had been spoken of, mounted on
rough-looking fen horses, with broad feet which enabled them to get over
the soft ground at a considerable rate, while, they kept the legs of
their riders out of the water. The horses were left at a hut at a
little distance from the decoy, under charge of one of the persons
employed in attending it. It was situated in the midst of somewhat
higher and firmer ground than any they had before passed over, and was
surrounded also with willow, poplar, and other trees.

The decoy consisted of a pond of a hundred and fifty acres, or more
perhaps. On the surface of it floated a number of water-lilies, the
aquatic ranunculus, and the flowers of other water-plants, while at the
edges for a considerable distance gulfs--or canals, they might be
called--had been cut, about seven yards wide at the mouth, more or less,
terminating in a sharp point. About ten or twelve yards from the
entrance of each canal, an arch was formed over the water of about ten
feet in height, a number of other arches succeeding it gradually, as
they advanced towards the inner end decreasing in height and width, the
innermost of all not being more than two feet in height, and about the
same in width. Over these a strong net was thrown and pegged closely
down to the ground, thus forming a complete cage, with a broad entrance
opening on the pool, there being only at the inner end a small door,
through which the fowler could insert his hand to draw out his captives.

"This is what we call a pipe," observed Burdale, as he exhibited the
arrangement to Long Sam.

On either side of the pipe, commencing at the pond, and continuing to
the farther end, was a screen formed of reeds, about five feet in
height, built in a zig-zag form, and broken into lengths of about five
or six feet, and at about a foot from the edge of the pipe. While the
party were examining this pipe, the chief fowler, accompanied by a
little dog, came up to them.

"This is our piper," he observed; "without him we could not manage to
catch any fowls."

He was a little foxy-coloured animal, evidently very obedient and
submissive to his master.

"You will see, sir," observed the man, "we have got ten pipes to our
decoy, all branching off in different directions. The reason of this is
that wild-fowl, when they get up fro