The bank was steep and awkward, but he had planned his leap so as to alight just where he could at once grasp an ash branch and so save himself from falling back into the water.

He could not, however, stay suspended there, but had to scramble over the hedge, and then called for his gun.
I leaned mine against a hollow withy pollard, and called 'ready.' Taking his gun a few inches above the trigger guard (and with the guard towards his side), holding it lightly just where it seemed to balance in a perpendicular position, I gave it a slow heave rather than a throw, and it rose into the air.

This peculiar _feeling_ hoist, as it were, caused it to retain the perpendicular position as it passed over brook and hedge in a low curve.

As it descended it did indeed slope a little, and Orion caught it with one hand easily.

The hedge being low he could see it coming; but guns are sometimes heaved in this way over hedges that have not been cropped for years.