The Colonel laughed heartily, for it was a curious thing to see this stately woman handling a gun with all the skill and quickness of a practised shot.  Besides, as the loader idea involved a whole afternoon of Ida’s society he certainly was not inclined to negative it.  But Edward Cossey did not smile; on the contrary he positively scowled with jealousy, and was about to make some remark when Ida held up her finger.

“Hush,” she said, “here comes my father” (the Squire had been counting the game); “he hates bets, so you mustn’t say anything about our match.”

Luncheon went off pretty well, though Edward Cossey did not contribute much to the general conversation.  When it was done the Squire announced that he was going to walk to the other end of the estate, whereon Ida said that she should stop and see something of the shooting, and the fun began.

CHAPTER XXII

THE END OF THE MATCH

They began the afternoon with several small drives, but on the whole the birds did very badly.  They broke back, went off to one side or the other, and generally misbehaved themselves.  In the first drive the Colonel and Edward Cossey got a bird each.  In the second drive the latter got three birds, firing five shots, and his antagonist only got a hare and a pheasant that jumped out of a ditch, neither of which, of course, counted anything.  Only one brace of birds came his way at all, but if the truth must be told, he was talking to Ida at the moment and did not see them till too late.

Then came a longer drive, when the birds were pretty plentiful.  The Colonel got one, a low-flying Frenchman, which he killed as he topped the fence, and after that for the life of him he could not touch a feather.  Every sportsman knows what a fatal thing it is to begin to miss and then get nervous, and that was what happened to the Colonel.  Continually there came distant cries of “Mark! mark over!” followed by the apparition of half-a-dozen brown balls showing clearly against the grey autumn sky and sweeping down towards him like lightning. Whizz in front, overhead and behind; bang, bang; bang again with the second gun, and they were away—­vanished, gone, leaving nothing but a memory behind them.

The Colonel swore beneath his breath, and Ida kneeling at his side, sighed audibly; but it was of no use, and presently the drive was done, and there he was with one wretched French partridge to show for it.

Ida said nothing, but she looked volumes, and if ever a man felt humiliated, Harold Quaritch was that man.  She had set her heart upon his winning the match, and he was making an exhibition of himself that might have caused a schoolboy to blush.

Only Edward Cossey smiled grimly as he told his bearer to give the two and a half brace which he had shot to George.