d that swooped earthward cast a shadow quite as large as
had the aeroplane she had seen.

"The eagle!" exclaimed Neale. "Oh, look! look!"

The whole party--even Tom Jonah--was transfixed with wonder as they
observed a huge bird sail slowly across the valley toward them and
finally alight upon a bare branch of a tall, dead pine at the edge of
the field. There the eagle poised for a few moments, its wings half
spread, "tip-tilting," as Agnes said, till he had struck the right
balance. Then he settled more comfortably on his perch, turned his head
till his harsh beak and evil eye were aimed over his shoulder, steadily
viewing something in the field below him.

The bird did not see the party of spectators at the boundary fence; but
they quickly discovered the object which the bird of prey observed.

"There! Oh, look there!" gasped Agnes. "_That thing's moving!_"

"It's a girl!" murmured Ruth.

"Sue Billet--as sure as you live," muttered Neale. "There's
Lycurgus--over behind the fence--he's after the eagle!"

"What a dreadful thing!" exclaimed Ruth, aloud. "Is he using his own
child for bait! That's what he's doing! Oh, Neale! Oh, Agnes! He's sent
that child out there to attract the eagle's attention," Ruth went on to
cry. "What a wicked, wicked thing to do!"

CHAPTER IX

BOB BUCKHAM TAKES A HAND

Ruth's low cry was involuntary. She did not mean to frighten the little
Corner House girls; but they saw and understood as well as the older
spectators. Tess and Dot clung together and Dot began to whimper.

"Oh, don't cry, Dot! Don't cry!" begged Tess.

"That--that awful aigret!" gasped Dot, getting things mixed again, but
quite as much frightened as though she were right. "It will bite that
little girl."

"No. We'll set Tom Jonah on him!" exclaimed Tess, bravely.

"Hush!" exclaimed Neale, in a low, tense voice. "Lycurgus is going to
shoot it."

"Go right on, Sue!" they heard the hunter say to his little daughter, in
a voice scarcely above a whisper, but very penetrating. "Walk right out
in that there field. I got my eye on you."

"You keep your eye on that ol' eagle, Pap--never mind watchin' me," was
the faint reply of little Sue Billet.

"Don't you have no fear," Lycurgus said in his sharp wheeze. "I'm
a-gwine to shoot that fow-el. He's my meat."

The eagle raised his wings slowly; they quivered and he stretched his
neck around so that he could glare again at the trembling little girl.
It was no wo