And as for food--how much worse it would
have been had the ledge been a bare piece of rock! Here he had some
grass, and the roots of the herbs and bushes. A man could keep himself
alive on such things if he had will enough. And, as a last resource,
there was the young eagle! This idea, however, was anything but
attractive to him; and it was with eyes of good-will rather than of
appetite that he glanced at his fellow-prisoner sitting motionless at
the other extremity of the ledge.

"It'ld be hard lines, pardner, ef I should hev to eat you, after all!"
he muttered, with a twisted kind of grin. "We're both of us in a hole,
sure enough, an' I'll play fair as long as I kin!"

As he mused, a great shadow passed over his head, and looking up, he
saw one of the eagles hovering low above the ledge. It was the male,
his old acquaintance, staring down at him from under that strange,
black brow. He carried a large fish in his talons, and was plainly
anxious to feed his captive young, but not quite ready to approach
this mysterious man-creature who had been able to invade his eyrie as
if with wings. Horner lay as still as a stone, watching through
half-closed lids. The young eagle, seeing food so near, opened its
beak wide and croaked eagerly; while the mother bird, larger but
wilder and less resolute than her mate, circled aloof with sharp cries
of warning. At last, unable any longer to resist the appeals of his
hungry youngster, the great bird swooped down over him, dropped the
fish fairly into his clutches, and slanted away with a hurried
flapping which betrayed his nervousness.

As the youngster fell ravenously upon his meal, tearing it and
gulping the fragments, Horner drew a deep breath.

"There's where I come in, pardner," he explained. "When I kin git up
an appetite for that sort of vittles, I'll go shares with you, ef
y'ain't got no objection!"

Having conceived this idea, Horner was seized with a fear that the
captive might presently gain the power of flight and get away. This
was a thought under which he could not lie still. In his pocket he
always carried a bunch of stout salmon-twine and a bit of copper
rabbit-wire, apt to be needed in a hundred forest emergencies. He
resolved to catch the young eagle and tether it securely to a bush.

His first impulse was to set about this enterprise at once. With
excruciating effort he managed to pull off his heavy woollen
hunting-shirt, intending to use it as the toreador use