'
Taking his gun a few inches above the trigger guard (and with the guard
towards his side), holding it lightly just where it seemed to balance in
a perpendicular position, I gave it a slow heave rather than a throw,
and it rose into the air. This peculiar _feeling_ hoist, as it were,
caused it to retain the perpendicular position as it passed over brook
and hedge in a low curve. As it descended it did indeed slope a little,
and Orion caught it with one hand easily. The hedge being low he could
see it coming; but guns are sometimes heaved in this way over hedges
that have not been cropped for years. Then the gun suddenly appears in
the air, perhaps fifteen feet high, while the catch depends not only
upon the dexterity of the hand but the ear--to judge correctly where the
person who throws it is standing, as he is invisible.
The spaniels plunged in the brook among the flags, but though they made
a great splashing nothing came of it till we approached a marshy place
where was a pond. A moorhen then rose and scuttled down the brook, her
legs dragging along the surface some distance before she could get up,
and the sunshine sparkling on the water that dropped from her. I fired
and knocked her over: at the sound of the discharge a bird rose from the
low mound by the pond some forty yards ahead. My second barrel was empty
in an instant.
Both Orion's followed; but the distance, the intervening pollard
willows, or our excitement spoilt the aim.
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