eat in its mandibles, jerk it out of the
dog's very teeth, and swallow it, before the latter had time to offer
either interruption or remonstrance.

The consequence was, that, from that time, Fritz had conceived a most
rancorous antipathy towards all birds of the genus _Ciconia_--and the
species _Argala_ in particular; and this it was that impelled him, on
first perceiving the adjutant--for being by the hut on their arrival he
had not seen them before,--to rush open-mouthed towards them, and seize
the tail of one of them between his teeth.

It is not necessary to add that the bird, thus indecorously assailed,
took to instant flight, followed by its more fortunate though not less
frightened mate--leaving Fritz in a temper to treat Marabout feathers as
they had never been treated before--even when by the hands of some
scorned and jealous vixen they may have been torn from the turban of
some hated rival!

CHAPTER FIFTY NINE.

CAPTURING THE STORKS.

Our adventurers witnessed the uprising of the birds with looks that
betokened disappointment and displeasure; and Fritz was in danger of
getting severely castigated. He merited chastisement; and would have
received it on the instant--for Caspar already stood over him with an
upraised rod--when an exclamation from Karl caused the young hunter to
hold his hand, and saved Fritz from the "hiding" with which he was being
threatened.

It was not for this that Karl had called out. The exclamation that
escaped him was of a different import--so peculiarly intoned as at once
to draw Caspar's attention from the culprit, and fix it on his brother.

Karl was standing with eyes upraised and gazing fixedly upon the
retreating stork--that one with whose tail Fritz had taken such an
unwarrantable liberty.

It was not the ragged Marabout feathers, hanging half plucked from the
posterior of the stork, upon which Karl was gazing; but its long legs,
that, as the bird rose in its hurried flight, hung, slantingly downward,
extending far beyond the tip of its tail. Not exactly these either was
it that had called forth that strange cry; but something attached to
them--or one of them at least--which, as it came under the shining rays
of the sun, gleamed in the eyes of Karl with a metallic lustre.

It had a yellowish sheen--like gold or burnished brass--but the
scintillation of the sun's rays, as they glanced from its surface,
hindered the spectators from making out its shape, or being a