he birds the keeper picked up;
for he kept strictly to his own business and rarely adventured on a
second shot. But it was clear that both Sir Hugh and Captain Waveney
were highly pleased with the way things were going. There were plenty of
birds; they lay well; the dogs were working beautifully; and the bag was
mounting up at a rate that promised to atone for the delay of the
morning. In fact, they were now disposed to regard that episode as
rather a comical affair.

"I say, Waveney," Sir Hugh remarked, as they paused for a moment to have
a sip of cold tea, for the day was hot, "you'd better confess it; you
put up the old minister to give us that frightfully long service this
morning. It was a joke on Lord Fareborough--now, wasn't it?"

"It may have been; but I had nothing to do with it, anyway," was the
answer. "Not I. Too serious a joke. I thought his lordship was going to
have a fit of apoplexy when he came into the gun-room."

"My good fellow, don't talk like that!" the other exclaimed. "If you
mention apoplexy to him, he'll add that on to the hundred and twenty
diseases and dangers that threaten his life every moment. Apoplexy! What
has he got already?--gout, asthma, heart disease, his lungs giving way,
his liver in a frightful condition, his nervous system gone to bits--and
yet, all the same, the old hypocrite is going to try for a stag before
he leaves. I suppose he'll want Roderick to carry him as soon as he
quits the pony! Well, come along, Mr. Moore; we've done pretty well so
far, I think."

But it was not Lionel who needed any incitement to go forward; he was
far more eager than any of his companions, now that he had been
acquitting himself none so ill. Moreover, he had youth on his side and a
sound chest, while nature had not given him a pair of well-formed calves
for nothing; so that he faced the steep hillsides or got over the rough
ground with comparative ease, rejoicing the while in the unwonted
freedom of knickerbockers. It was Sir Hugh, with his bulky habit of
body, who got blown now and again; as for Captain Waveney, he was a
pretty tough subject and wiry. So they fought bravely on, to atone for
the inhuman detention of the morning; and by the time it was necessary
to make for the appointed luncheon rendezvous they had the wherewithal
to give a very excellent account of themselves.

Now, several times during the morning they had come in view of the
Aivron, winding far below them through the wide