"It's great to get away from everything—like this—isn't it?" he remarked, looking round with huge satisfaction into the homeless haunted wild, with its brooding blackness as of primeval chaos.
Sailor lay at our feet, dreaming of to-morrow's duck. His master's thoughts were evidently in the same direction.
"How are you with a gun?" he asked, turning to the boy.
"O! I won't brag. I had better wait till to-morrow. But, of course, you will have to lend me a gun."
"I have a beauty for you—just your weight," replied Charlie, his face beaming as it did only at the thought of his guns, which he kept polished like jewels and guarded as jealously as a violinist his violin, or an Arab his harem.
CHAPTER VI
Duck.
Dawn was just breaking as I felt Charlie's great paw on my shoulder next morning. He was very serious. For a moment, as I sat up, still half asleep, I thought he had news of Tobias. But it was only duck. He had heard a great quacking during the night, and was impatient to make a start. So was Sailor.