"My ideal woman has never been a life-taker," he said coolly. "Once, when I was a boy, there was a girl--very lovely--my first sweetheart. I saw her at the traps once, just after she had killed her seventh pigeon straight, 'pulling it down' from overhead, you know--very clever--the little thing was breathing on the grass, and it made sounds--" He shrugged and walked on. "She killed her twenty-first bird straight; it was a handsome cup, too."
And after a silence, "So you didn't love her any more, Mr. Siward?"--mockingly sweet.
They laughed, and at the sound of laughter the tall-stemmed alders echoed with the rushing roar of a cock-grouse thundering skyward. Crack! Crack! Whirling over and over through a cloud of floating feathers, a heavy weight struck the springy earth. There lay the big mottled bird, splendid silky ruffs spread, dead eyes closing, a single tiny crimson bead twinkling like a ruby on the gaping beak.
"Dead!" said Siward to the dog who had dropped to shot; "Fetch!" And, signalling the boy behind, he relieved the dog of his burden and tossed the dead weight of ruffled plumage toward him. Then he broke his gun, and, as the empty shells flew rattling backward, slipped in fresh cartridges, locked the barrels, and walked forward, the flush of excitement still staining his sunburnt face.
"You deal death mercifully," said the girl in a low voice. "I wonder what your ci-devant sweetheart would think of you."
"A bungler had better stick to the traps," he assented, ignoring the badinage.
"I am wondering," she said thoughtfully, "what I think of men who kill."
He turned sharply, hesitated, shrugged. "Wild things' lives are brief at best--fox or flying-tick, wet nests or mink, owl, hawk, weasel or man. But the death man deals is the most merciful. Besides," he added, laughing, "ours is not a case of sweethearts."
"My argument is purely in the abstract, Mr. Siward. I am asking you whether the death men deal is more justifiable than a woman's gift of death?"
"Oh, well, life-taking, the giving of life--there can be only one answer to the mystery; and I don't know it," he replied smiling.
"I do."
"Tell me then," he said, still amused.
They had passed swale after swale of silver birches waist deep in perfumed fern and brake; the big timber lay before them. She moved forward, light gun swung easily across her leather-padded shoulder; and on the wood's sunny edge she seated herself, straight young back against a giant pine, gun balanced across her flattened knees.
"You are feeling the pace a little," he said, coming up and standing in front of her.