Even the wary old fellow himself did not go far, for Oscar brought him down, in company with two others, before his warning note was fairly uttered.
The volley was not as effective as the boys intended it should be, for only five ducks fell. The current carried them to the shore in a few minutes, and Oscar brought them in and placed them behind the blind.
The sport continued for two hours and a half, and then, the breeze having died away, the fog settled down again, this time bringing rain with it.
When the decoys were shut out from view, the boys laid aside their guns, and Oscar, after placing his game-bag within easy reach of his friend's hand, arose to his feet and walked off toward the willows, while Sam began to cut up some dry branches with his knife.
By the time Oscar returned with an armful of wood he had found in the thicket, Sam had raised a good-sized pile of shavings and kindling-wood, and a roaring fire was under way in short order.
While Oscar continued to make regular trips between the thicket and the fire, bringing his arms full of wood each time, Sam selected a duck from the pile behind the blind, plucked and cleaned it with skill that would have done credit to any professional cook, and, having impaled it upon a forked stick, thrust the stick into the ground beside the fire and left it there, while he proceeded to overhaul the contents of his game-bag and Oscar's.
The dinner being well under way, and all the firewood they were likely to need having been placed close at hand, the young hunters sat down to take a rest; for the exertions they had made to rescue the skipper of the sail-boat and carry him to the village before he froze to death had wearied them not a little.
Now and then a hoarse "quack, quack!" came to their ears through the thick mist, followed by a loud splashing in the water as a flock of ducks settled into if, and occasionally they heard a lonely whistle-wing flying down the river; but the fog concealed everything from their view outside of a radius of twenty yards, and they were reluctantly compelled to allow the birds to pass unharmed.
They had made themselves comfortable in spite of the moist condition of things. The branches that Oscar had spread over the ground kept their feet out of the mud; the high blind, behind which the fire was built, served to protect them from the gusts of rain that came out of the fog, and the boys were well contented and were prepared to enjoy their dinner as heartily as though they had a tight roof over their heads.