CHAPTER XXX.
A Girl and a Gun.
A short distance beyond the place where Kate had been left, there was a small by-path; and when, still carefully carrying her gun, she reached this path, Kate stopped. Here would be a good place, she thought, to wait for game. Something would surely come into that little path, if she kept herself concealed.
So she knelt down behind a small bush that grew at a corner of the two paths, and putting her gun through the bush, rested the barrel in a crotch.
The gun now pointed up the by-path, and there was an opening in the bush through which Kate could see for some distance.
Here, then, she watched and waited.
The first thing that crossed the path was a very little bird. It hopped down from a twig, it jerked its head about, it pecked at something on the ground, and then flew up into a tree. Kate would not have shot it on any account, for she knew it was not good to eat; but she could not help wondering how people ever did shoot birds, if they did not "hold still" any longer than that little creature did.
Then there appeared a small brown lizard. It came very rapidly right down the path toward Kate.
"If it comes all the way," thought Kate, "I shall have to jump."
But it did not come all the way, and Kate remained quiet.