From that one bird the Colonel could see that the man was a quick and clever shot.  Presently, however, a leash of English birds rose rather awkwardly at about forty paces straight in front of Edward Cossey, and Harold noticed that he left them alone, never attempting to fire at them.  In fact he was one of those shooters who never take a hard shot if they can avoid it, being always in terror lest they should miss it and so reduce their average.

Then George, who was a very fair shot of the “poking” order, fired both barrels and got a bird, and Edward Cossey got another.  It was not till they were getting to the end of their last beat that Harold found a chance of letting off his gun.  Suddenly, however, a brace of old birds sprang up out of the turnips in front of him at about thirty yards as swiftly as though they had been ejected from a mortar, and made off, one to the right and one to the left, both of them rising shots.  He got the right-hand bird, and then turning killed the other also, when it was more than fifty yards away.

The Colonel felt satisfied, for the shots were very good.  Mr. Cossey opened his eyes and wondered if it was a fluke, and George ejaculated, “Well, that’s a master one.”

After this they pursued their course, picking up another two brace of birds on the way to the outlying cover, a wood of about twenty acres through which they were to brush.  It was a good holding wood for pheasants, but lay on the outside of the Honham estate, where they were liable to be poached by the farmers whose land marched, so George enjoined them particularly not to let anything go.

Into the details of the sport that followed we need not enter, beyond saying that the Colonel, to his huge delight, never shot better in his life.  Indeed, with the exception of one rabbit and hen pheasant that flopped up right beneath his feet, he scarcely missed anything, though he took the shots as they came.  Edward Cossey also shot well, and with one exception missed nothing, but then he never took a difficult shot if he could avoid it.  The exception was a woodcock which rose in front of George, who was walking down an outside belt with the beaters.  He loosed two barrels at it and missed, and on it came among the tree tops, past where Edward Cossey was standing, about half-way down the belt, giving him a difficult chance with the first barrel and a clear one with the second.  Bang! bang! and on came the woodcock, now flying low, but at tremendous speed, straight at the Colonel’s head, a most puzzling shot.  However, he fired, and to his joy (and what joy is there like to the joy of a sportsman who has just killed a woodcock which everybody has been popping at?) down it came with a thump almost at his feet.