CHAPTER XXXV.
Punt-shooting on Breydon.--A Narrow Escape.
The Christmas holidays had commenced for the boys. Frank had aconsultation with Bell, which ended in Bell's borrowing a duck-shootingpunt from a neighbour, and Dick's looking up the big duck-gun from hisfather's lumber-room. The punt was a flat-bottomed one, pointed at bothends and covered fore and aft, so as to form two watertightcompartments. In the bows was a rest for the gun to lie upon. As the guntook a pound of shot at a load, Frank was rather nervous about firing itoff, for the recoil, if not broken by mechanical appliances, would havedislocated his shoulder. So he bought some india-rubber door-springs,and with them constructed an apparatus to take off the recoil of thegun, and, lest it should by any chance hit his shoulder, he got Mary tomake a stout cushion, which he fixed to the butt.
Reports came that Breydon Water was swarming with wild-fowl, so, takingBell with them as a guide and instructor, and with the shooting-punt intow instead of their own, they set sail for Yarmouth, and sailing upBreydon Water they moored the yacht by the Berney Arms, a public-housesituate where the Yare debouches into Breydon.
As the night fell they could see and hear wild-fowl of various kindsflying to and settling on the muds. Dick preferred staying on board theyacht, for his frame was not yet so inured to winter cold as it had beento summer heat, and the other two, with Bell, set out in the punt abouteight o'clock. They rowed down Breydon Water with the last of the ebb,and then floated and paddled up again as the tide rose. Bell crouched inthe stern and worked the two short paddles by which the punt waspropelled when approaching the birds. Frank lay in the bows, with thebig gun in position in front of him, and Jimmy cuddled up in the middle,armed with Frank's light double-barrel, ready to knock over any of thewounded birds which might try to escape. The night was rather light withthe brightness from the stars, which shone resplendently from the deep,dark blue, and in the east the moon lifted a faint curved horn above thetrees.
"There are a lot of birds on that mud-bank; I can hear them quiteplainly," whispered Frank to Bell.
"Hush! Don't you speak or fire until I whistle, and then pull thetrigger; but have the gun ready covering the birds. They are tooscattered now. Wait until the tide rises a little higher, and coversmost part of the bank, and then they will huddle together, when you willkill twice as many."
They waited for a quarter of an hour, gradually drawing nearer thebirds, which were now collected together on a large dark patch on themud which was still uncovered by the rippling waves. Frank had his eyeon them, the gun covering them and his finger on the trigger, waitingbreathlessly for the signal.
A low whistle sounded behind him. A sudden silence took the place of thechattering and gobbling sounds which had before proceeded from thebirds. Frank pressed the trigger. The mighty gun flashed forth itsdeadly contents with a tremendous roar, and Frank found himself hurledback upon Jimmy. He had incautiously put his shoulder to the gun. He wasnot hurt, however, for the cushion had saved his shoulder. The birdswhich were unhurt swept away with a great clamour, but the mud wascovered with dead and dying. Two of the winged ones were swimming away,when Jimmy fired and killed them. They landed on the mud, taking care toput on the mud-boards. They picked up the dead ones, and had many alively chase after the wounded ones on the mud and in the shallow water.They recovered five-and-twenty birds. Half of them were wild-ducks, andthe rest dunlins and other shore birds.
WILD DUCK SHOOTING.]
They passed on up Breydon, but they could not get another shot of suchmagnitude. Another punt was on the water, and the noise of its firingand oars disturbed the birds, so that they were difficult to approach.They got, however, two more long shots, and killed six ducks at one andthree at another.
The tide had now covered most of the flats, and the birds had eitherleft the water or were floating on the surface, and could not easily beseen because of the waves. Bell then said he knew of a spot where themud had been artificially raised, so as to form a sort of island, forthe express purpose of enticing the wild-fowl to gather on it as thetide rose. He therefore paddled them towards it. Some clouds hadobscured much of the starlight, and the night was darker. Frank becameaware of one dark patch on the water in front of them, and another tothe left. He thought they were both flocks of birds, and selected theleft hand one, as being the nearer. He covered it with his gun, andwaited somewhat impatiently for Bell to give the signal.
"Surely we are near enough;" he thought, when Jimmy crept up behind himand whispered, "Bell says that is another punt, they must be making forthe mud we are, that patch in front."
"By Jove," exclaimed Frank, "I was aiming at the boat, and about tofire. Perhaps they are aiming at us."
"Don't shoot," cried out Bell to the other boat, and Frank immediatelytwisted his gun around and fired at the birds which rose from themud-bank.
"I say, you there!" cried out a man in the other boat, "that was anarrow escape for you. I was on the point of firing at you. You shouldgive me half the birds you shot then."
"All right, you shall have them, if you will help to pick them up," sangout Frank. Only a dozen, half of them dunlins, were secured anddivided.
"That was a danger in punt-shooting which I hadn't foreseen," said Frankto the stranger. "It was a close shave for you as well as for us. Willyou come on board our yacht and have some supper?"
The stranger assented, and proved to be a sporting lawyer from Yarmouth,and a very pleasant fellow.