"No, you don"t," said he. "You come with me and Redmond and get out the decoys."
"What for?" I temporized, feebly.
"To keep the moths out of them, of course," replied the Captain with fine sarcasm. "Do you mean to tell me that you can sit still and do nothing after seeing all those ducks this afternoon? You"re a fine sportsman! Brace up!"
"Let me finish this excellent cigar," I pleaded. "You gave it to me."
To this he a.s.sented. Carrie went back to the piano. The lights were dim.
Mrs. Kitty went on finishing her crochet work or whatever it was. n.o.body said anything for a long time. The Captain was busy in the gun room with one of the ranch foremen.
But this could not last, and at length I was haled forth to work.
The crisp, sharp air beneath the frosty stars, after the tepid air within, awakened me like the shock of cold water. Redmond was awaiting us with a lantern. By the horse block lay the ma.s.s of something indeterminate which I presently saw to be sacks full of something k.n.o.bby.
"I have six sacks of wooden decoys," said Redmond, "with weights all on them."
The Captain nodded and pa.s.sed on. We made our way down past the grape arbour, opened the high door leading into chickenville, and stopped at the border of the little pond. On its surface floated a hundred or so tame ducks of all descriptions. By means of clods of earth we woke them up. They came ash.o.r.e and waddled without objection to a little inclosure. We followed them and shut the gate.
One after another the Captain indicated those he wished to take with him on the morrow. Redmond caught them, inserted them in gunny sacks, two to the sack. They made no great objection to being caught. One or two youngsters flopped and flapped about, and had to be chased into a corner. In general, however, they accepted the situation philosophically, and snuggled down contentedly in their sacks.
"They are used to it," the Captain explained. "Most of these Rouen ducks are old hands at the business; they know what to expect."
He was very particular as to the colouring of the individuals he selected. A single white feather was sufficient to cause the rejection of a female; and even when the colour scheme was otherwise perfect, too light a shade proved undesired.
"I don"t know just why it is," said he, "but the wild ducks are a lot more particular about the live decoys than about the wooden. A wooden decoy can be all knocked to pieces, faded and generally disreputable, but it does well enough; but a live decoy must look the part absolutely.
That gives us six apiece; I think it will be enough."
Redmond took charge of our capture. We left him with the lantern, stowing away the decoys, live and inanimate, in the Invigorator. Within fifteen minutes thereafter I was sleeping the sleep of the moderately tired and the fully fed.
CHAPTER VIII
DUCKS
The Captain rapped on my door. It was pitch dark, and the wind, which had arisen during the night, was sweeping through the open windows, blowing the light curtains about. Also it was very cold.
"All right," I answered, took my resolution in my hands, and stepped forth.
Ten minutes later, by the light of a single candle, we were manipulating the coffee-and-egg machine, and devouring the tall pile of bread-and-b.u.t.ter sandwiches that had been left for us over night. Then, stepping as softly as we could in our clumping rubber boots, our arms burdened with guns and wraps, we stole into the outer darkness.
It was almost black, but we could dimly make out the treetops whipped about by the wind. Over by the stable we caught the intermittent flashes of many lanterns where the teamsters were feeding their stock. Presently a merry and vigorous _rattle_--_rattle_--_rattle_ arose and came nearer.
The Invigorator was ready and under way.
We put on all the coats and sweaters, and climbed aboard. The Captain spoke to his horses, and we were off.
That morning I had my first experience of a phenomenon I have never ceased admiring--and wondering at. I refer to the Captain"s driving in the dark.
The night was absolutely black, so that I could hardly make out the horses. In all the world were only two elements, the sky full of stars and the ma.s.s of the earth. The value of this latter, as a means of showing us where we were, was nullified by the fact that the skyline consisted, not of recognizable and serviceable landmarks, but of the distant mountains. We went a certain length of time, and b.u.mped over a certain number of things. Then the Captain pulled his team sharp around to the left. Why he did so I could not tell you. We drove an hour over a meandering course.
"Hang tight," remarked the Captain.
I did so. The front end of the Invigorator immediately fell away from under me, so that if I had not been obeying orders by hanging tight I should most certainly have plunged forward against the horses. We seemed to slide and slither down a steep declivity, then hit water with a splash, and began to flounder forward. The water rose high enough to cover the floor of the Invigorator, causing the Captain to speculate on whether Redmond had packed in the sh.e.l.ls properly. Then the bow rose with a mighty jerk and we scrambled out the other side.
"That"s the upper ford on the Slough," observed the Captain, calmly.
Everywhere else along the Slough, as I subsequently discovered, the banks fell off perpendicular, the water was deep, and the bottom soft.
The approach was down no fenced lane, but across the open, with no other landmarks even in daylight than the break of low willows and cottonwoods exactly like a hundred others. Ten minutes later the Captain drew rein.
"Here you are," said he, cautiously. "You can dump your stuff off right here. I can"t get through the fence with the team; but it"s only a short distance to carry."
Accordingly, in entire faith, I descended and unloaded my three sacks of wooden decoys and my three sacks of live ducks and my gun and sh.e.l.ls.
"I"ll drive on to another hole," said the Captain. "Good luck!"
"Would you mind," I suggested, meekly, "telling me in which direction this mythical fence is situated; what kind of a fence it is; and where I carry to when I get through it?"
The Captain chuckled.
"Why," he explained, "the fence is straight ahead of you; and it"s barbed wire; and as for where you"re headed, you"ll find the pond where we saw all those ducks last night about a hundred yards or so west."
Where we saw all those ducks! My blood increased its pace through my veins. Now that I was afoot, I could begin to make out things in the starlight--the silhouettes of bushes or brush, and even three or four posts of the fence.
The Invigorator rattled into the distance. I got my stuff the other side of the wires, and, shouldering a sack, plodded away due west.
But now I made out the pond gleaming; and by this and by the dim grayness of the earth immediately about me knew that dawn was at last under way. The night had not yet begun to withdraw, but its first strength was going. Objects in the world about became, not visible, but existent. By the time I had carried my last load the rather liberal hundred yards to the sh.o.r.es of the pond the eastern sky had banished its stars.
My movements had, of course, alarmed the ducks. There were not many of them, as I could judge by the whistling of their departing wings and by the silvery furrows where they had left the water. It is curious how strong the daylight must become before the eye can distinguish a duck in flight. The comparative paucity of numbers, I reflected, was probably due to the fact that the ducks used this pond merely as a loafing place during the day. Therefore I should antic.i.p.ate a good flight as soon as feeding time should be over; especially as one end of the pond proved to be fairly well sheltered from the high wind.
At once I set to work to build me a blind. This I constructed of tumbleweed and willow shoots, with a lucky sagebrush as a good basis. I made it thick below and thin on top, so I could crouch hidden, and rise easily to shoot. Also I made it hastily, working away with a concentration that would prove very valuable could it be brought to a useful line of work. There can nothing equal the busyness of a man hastening to perfect his arrangements before a flight of ducks is due to start. Every few moments I would look anxiously up to see how things were going with the morning. The light was indubitably increasing. That is to say, I could make out the whole width of the pond, for example, although the farther banks were still in silhouette, and the sky was almost free of stars. Also the perpendicular plane of the mountains to the west, in some subtle manner, was beginning to break. It was not yet daylight; but the dawn was here.
I reached cautiously into one of the sacks and brought forth one of the decoy ducks. Around his neck I buckled a little leather collar to a ring in which had been attached a cord and weight. Then I cautiously waded out and anch.o.r.ed him.
He was delighted, and proceeded immediately to take a bath, ducking his head under and out again, ruffling his wings, and wagging his absurd little tail. Apparently the whole experience was a matter of course to him; but he was willing to show pleasure that this phase of it was over.
I anch.o.r.ed out his five companions, and then proceeded to arrange the wooden decoys artistically around the outskirts. By now it was quite genuinely early daylight. Three times the overhead whistle of wings had warned me to hurry; and twice small flocks of ducks had actually swung down within range only to discover me at the last moment and tower away again. When younger, I used, at such junctures, to rush for my gun. That is a puppy stage, for by the time you get your gun those ducks are gone; and by the time you have regained your abandoned task more ducks are in.
Therefore one early learns that when he goes out from his blind to pick up ducks, or catch cripples, or arrange decoys, he would better do so, paying no attention whatever to the game that will immediately appear.
So now the whistle of wings merely caused me to work the faster. At length I was able to wade ash.o.r.e and sink into my blind.
Immediately, as usual, the flights ceased for the time being. I had nothing to do but sit tight and wait.
This was no unpleasant task. The mountains to the west had become lucent, and glowed pink in the dawn; those to the east looked like silhouettes of very thin slate-coloured cardboard stuck up on edge, across which a pearl wash had been laid. The flatter world of the plains all about me lay half revealed in an unearthly gray light. The wind swooped and tore away at the brush, sending its fan-shaped cat"s-paws across the surface of the pond. My ducks, having finished their ablutions, now gave a leisurely attention to smoothing out their plumes ruffled by the night in the gunnysack. They ran each feather separately through their bills, preening and smoothing. All the time they conversed together in low tones of voice. Whenever one made a rather clever remark, or smoothed to glossiness a particularly rumpled feather, he wagged his short tail vigorously from side to side in satisfaction.
Suddenly the one farthest out in the pond stilled to attention and craned forward his neck.
"_Mark_!" quoth he, loudly, and then again: "_Mark_!
_quok_--_quok_--_quok_!"