lows. The first two baits were put out late in the
afternoon, and a bear got them both the next night. Then I put them
out in the early morning, and before noon Cheplahgan had found them.
He came straight as a string from his watch place over the mountain,
miles away, causing me to wonder greatly what strange sixth sense
guided him; for sight and smell seemed equally out of the question.
The next day he came again. Then I placed the best bait of all in the
shallows, and hid in the dense underbrush near, with my gun.

He came at last, after hours of waiting, dropping from above the
tree-tops with a heavy rustling of pinions. And as he touched the old
log, and spread his broad white tail, I saw and was proud of the gap
which my bullet had made weeks before. He stood there a moment erect
and splendid, head, neck, and tail a shining white; even the dark
brown feathers of his body glinted in the bright sunshine. And he
turned his head slowly from side to side, his keen eyes flashing, as
if he would say, "Behold, a king!" to Chigwooltz the frog, and
Tookhees the wood mouse, and to any other chance wild creature that
might watch him from the underbrush at his unkingly act of feeding on
dead fish. Then he hopped down--rather awkwardly, it must be
confessed; for he is a creature of the upper deeps, who cannot bear to
touch the earth--seized a fish, which he tore to pieces with his claws
and ate greedily. Twice I tried to shoot him; but the thought of the
wilderness without him was upon me, and held me back. Then, too, it
seemed so mean to pot him from ambush when he had come down to earth,
where he was at a disadvantage; and when he clutched some of the
larger fish in his talons, and rose swiftly and bore away westward,
all desire to kill him was gone. There were little Cloud Wings, it
seemed, which I must also find and watch. After that I hunted him more
diligently than before, but without my gun. And a curious desire,
which I could not account for, took possession of me: to touch this
untamed, untouched creature of the clouds and mountains.

Next day I did it. There were thick bushes growing along one end of
the old log on which the eagle rested. Into these I cut a tunnel with
my hunting-knife, arranging the tops in such a way as to screen me
more effectively. Then I put out my bait, a good two hours before the
time of Old Whitehead's earliest appearance, and crawled into my den
to wait.

I had barely settled comfortably in