from a safe distance the phenomenon on the land.

The bailiff, kneeling behind the paling, whispered, "Trim!"

Hearing his name, the terrier turned about, and retiring through
the hole, became lost to the view of the ducks. Motionless on the
water, the wild fowl wondered and waited. In a minute more, the
dog had trotted round, and had shown himself through the next
hole in the paling, pierced further inward where the lake ran up
into the outermost of the windings of the creek.

The second appearance of the terrier instantly produced a second
fit of curiosity among the ducks. With one accord, they swam
forward again, to get another and a nearer view of the dog; then,
judging their safe distance once more, they stopped for the
second time, under the outermost arch of the decoy. Again the dog
vanished, and the puzzled ducks waited. An interval passed, and
the third appearance of Trim took place, through a third hole in
the paling, pierced further inland up the creek. For the third
time irresistible curiosity urged the ducks to advance further
and further inward, under the fatal arches of the decoy. A fourth
and a fifth time the game went on, until the dog had lured the
water-fowl from point to point into the inner recesses of the
decoy. There a last appearance of Trim took place. A last
advance, a last cautious pause, was made by the ducks. The
bailiff touched the strings, the weighed net-work fell vertically
into the water, and closed the decoy. There, by dozens and
dozens, were the ducks, caught by means of their own
curiosity--with nothing but a little dog for a bait! In a few
hours afterward they were all dead ducks on their way to the