ck. For a second his wonderful wings beat
and beat tremendously, frenziedly, with a noise you could hear all up
the hill; then he fell back in one demented, frenzied mix up of
bashing, smashing pinions, legs, tail, and whirling feathers.

That clash, which had jarred Cob's frame from head to hind-toe, was a
trap, _alias_ a gin, _alias_ a clam, and the rack of man's Inquisition
of the wild. He had stepped upon it; it had gone off, and caught him
by the right leg, and, being anchored by a chain, had refused to let
him go when he sought to remove himself, trap and all.

What followed during the next minute or two it would scarcely be fair
to so fine a bird to print. Moreover, it was unnice to behold.
Wild-folk have a habit often of going temporarily insane when they
first find themselves trapped, because the trap represents to them the
most supreme, the most unbearable, of all terrors--loss of freedom; and
freedom is to them more than life, especially to birds, and more
especially still to those whose lives are dedicated to the wild, free
sea.

At the end of that time Cob lay exhausted upon his side, one mighty
pinion pathetically trailing in the snow, his beak open, his whole jet
and spotless white body shaken and convulsed with pantings that were
almost sobs. He seemed in danger of dying there and then upon the
spot, with sheer, sickening horror or a broken heart.

The herring-gull was a silver line--about as big as a thrip--to
seaward. The gray crows climbed the heavens to landward, like flies
that climb a window-pane. Only the raven had not gone, quite.

The raven was a bird, of course, and every bird has got to do its duty.
There can be no shirking. _His_ duty was to supply food to keep the
fires of life burning in his mate as she sat upon her icy nest. His
duty was to see that his eggs, _their_ eggs, hatched out; and with him
the motto was: "The end justifies the means." This bird, this
sea-rover, this big pirate, alone stood between him and the discharge
of duty. There was no other way, no other food; he had searched.
Wherefore, the raven stayed; he knew all about traps, few better, and
he stayed, waiting, if it please you, for Cob to--die!

But Cob would not oblige. He had not got a broken and crushed leg, as
the raven possibly expected. He was not injured, as he should have
been, according to program; only puffed. The mercy of Allah had seen
to it that some teeth of that instrument of vile tortu