By John Halifax. In the autumn of 188—, a party of sportsmen were assembled at a country house for a fortnight’s partridge-shooting. It is not necessary to localise the place more particularly than to say it was in the county of Salop, and about ten miles from the sleepy old county town. When, however, I call them a party of sportsmen I am going just a little wide of the mark, for it would be more veracious to describe them —good., fellows though they all were—as a party of shooting men. Three of them deserved the superior title, for they knew how to shoot; on the other hand, two of them were most unmitigated duffers. The host himself was one of the old school, a man of some sixty summers, a steady shot and an all-round sportsman. Practically as much might bo said in favour of the oldest son, except that, as he was barely five-and-twenty, his experience was much more limited than his father’s. A Captain Eyton was the only other man who could hold a gun as a gun should be held, the party being made up by the two others who give the title to my paper. The party was an annual one. The two duffers, being college friends of. the son and heir, Godfrey Turner, had been invited regularly for the last six years, while Captain Eyton had on more than one occa sion been included in the invitation.
