day, too--at exactly the same time."

"What did it sound like?" Mr. Crow wanted to know.

So Jasper gave an imitation of the odd cry that had swept the valley.

"It was quite loud and very unpleasant to hear," he remarked. "And
whoever the stranger may be, if he's going to disturb me every noon like
that when I'm having my midday rest I shall have to drive him out of the
neighborhood."

"It's almost noon now," said old Mr. Crow, cocking his eye at the sun.
"Perhaps we'll hear the cry soon."

The words were scarcely out of his bill when a far-reaching call caught
the attention of the two cousins. It brought Jasper Jay to his tiptoes
at once. And he craned his neck in an effort to catch a glimpse of the
stranger who possessed such a powerful voice.

"There it is!" Jasper cried. "There's the call again! Do you know what
kind of bird makes that cry?"

Something seemed to have stuck in Mr. Crow's throat. At least, he
spluttered and choked and coughed. And he was quite unable to answer
just then. But after the mountains had quit tossing the sound back and
forth and all was quiet again he said:

"No small bird could make a sound like that. And if you can drive him
out of Pleasant Valley you're a better fighter than I ever supposed."

Mr. Crow might have known that his remark would not please Jasper Jay.
Jasper gave his cousin an angry glance; and he looked as if he would
have liked to fight _him_. But he had suffered one beating by his
elderly cousin. And he didn't care for another. So he only sneered
openly. And then he screamed in a loud voice:

"I'll find that noisy fellow and drive him out of Pleasant Valley, if it
takes me all summer to do it!" And he raised his crest, and snapped his
beak together, and stamped his feet, so that he looked very fierce
indeed.

But old Mr. Crow was not frightened in the least. He only smiled.

"Let me know when you've driven the stranger away," he said.

"Oh! you'll hear about it," Jasper Jay assured him. "It will be the most
famous fight that will ever take place in this valley," he boasted. And
then the two cousins parted. It did not put Jasper Jay in any better
humor to hear Mr. Crow's hoarse _haw-haw_ echoing across the valley. Of
course, Jasper did not know what he was laughing at. But that only
served to make the blue-coated scamp all the more peevish.

V

THE SEARCH

AFTER telling Mr. Crow what he was going to do to the strange bird,
which he had never see