Metal covering fractions from Si II, C II, and Al III (as given by the line types in the legend) as a function of the H I covering fraction (C_f(H I)) from Reddy et al. (2016b). C_f(H I) is always measured in a clumpy geometry. The black lines show 1–R measured from the dereddened stellar continuum normalized stacks. This assumes a clumpy geometry with a uniform dust screen. The blue lines show when the C_f (metal) is derived in the same geometry as C_f(H I). When calculated with consistent geometries, C_f(Si II 1260 Å) (blue dashedline) is offset from C_f(H I) by a similaramount as our observations in Fig. 4. The green dashed line shows our fitted relationship between C_f(Si II) and C_f (H I) from Fig. 4, after converting it to clumpy geometry. The Reddy et al. (2016b) C_f (H I)–C_f(Si II) relationship is consistent, within the errors, with ours. The red dashed line shows a one-to-one relation.