I replied that I would rather go on, but that I was in his hands.
"I think we are fairly safe in these open places, Sir Junius," he said; "and as the pheasants have been so much disturbed already, it does not much matter if they are blown about a bit.

But if you are of another opinion, perhaps you had better get out of it and stand with the others over the lake.

I'll send for my guns and take your place." On hearing this Van Koop changed his mind and said that he would go on.
So the beat began.

At first the wind blew from behind us, and pheasants in increasing numbers passed over our heads, most of them rather low, to the guns on the farther side of the water, who, skilled though they were, did not make very good work with them.

We had been instructed not to fire at birds going forward, so I let these be.