The water
was quite clear and still, and seemed to have caught all the little
light as was left by the sun, for the skies had got pretty dark, I tell
you; and I could see his head quite clear agin the water--well, I draw'd
trigger, and the hull charge ripped into 'em--and there was a scrabblin'
and a squatterin' in the water now, I tell you--but not one on 'em riz--
not the darned one of the hull bunch; but up jumped both the others, and
I drawed on the drake--more by the whistlin' of his wings, than that I
seen him--but I drawed stret, Archer, any ways; and arter I'd pulled
half a moment I hard him plump down into the creek with a splash, and
the water sparkled up like a fountain where he fell. So then I didn't
wait to load, but ran along the bank as hard as I could strick it, and
when I'd got down to the spot, I tell you, little Dash had got two on
'em out afore I came, and was in with a third. Well, sich a cuttin' and
a splashin' as there was you niver did see, none on you--I guess, for
sartin--leastwise I niver did. I'd killed, you see, the drake and two
ducks, dead at the first fire, but three was only wounded, wing-tipped,
and leg-broken, and I can't tell you what all.
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