"Oh, no, mem!" says Captain John, with a grin; but looking rather concerned all the same.
However, her attention is quickly called away by the sound of oars. She turns and regards this small boat approaching the yacht; and the more she looks the more do her eyes fill with astonishment.
"Well, I declare!" she says, "this is about the coolest thing I have seen for ages."
For it is Miss Mary Avon who is rowing the dingay back to the yacht; and her only companion is the Youth, who is contentedly seated in the stern, with his gun laid across his knees.
"Good morning, Mr. Smith!" she says, with the most gracious sarcasm. "Pray don't exert yourself too much. Severe exercise before breakfast is very dangerous."
The Youth lays hold of the rope; there is a fine blush on his handsome face.
"It is Miss Avon's fault," he says; "she would not let me row."
"I suppose she expected you to shoot? Where are the duck, and the snipe, and the golden plover? Hand them up!"
"If you want to see anything in the shape of game about this coast, you'd better wait till next Sunday," says he, somewhat gloomily.
However, after breakfast, we set out for the shallow head of the loch; and things do not turn out so badly after all. For we have only left the yacht some few minutes when there is a sudden whirring of wings—a call of "Duck! duck!"—and the Doctor, who is at the bow, and who is the only one who is ready, fires a snap-shot at the birds. Much to everybody's amazement, one drops, and instantly dives. Then begins an exciting chase. The biorlinn is sent careering with a vengeance; the men strain every muscle; and then another cry directs attention to the point at which the duck has reappeared. It is but for a second. Though he cannot fly, he can swim like a fish; and from time to time, as the hard pulling enables us to overtake him, we can see him shooting this way or that through the clear water. Then he bobs his head up, some thirty or forty yards off; and there is another snap-shot—the charge rattling on the water the fifth part of an instant after he disappears.