And it did.  They were soon at a part of the moor where the fun grew fast and furious; and, keeping as close as he could to certainties, or what looked like certainties, he was doing fairly well.  As for the other two, he could only judge of their prowess by the 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.