eir orbits cross each other--
now they are wheeling in parallel curves. Still upward flies the kite--
still upward goes the pursuing eagle. Closer and closer they appear to
come; narrower grow their soaring circles--but that is because they are
more distant and seem so. See! the kite is but a speck, and appears
stationary--now he is lost to the view. See! the eagle is but a speck!
She, too, disappears! No, not altogether--the little spot like the
fragment of a white cloud, or a piece of snow upon the sky--that is her
tail-tip. Ha! it is gone too--they are beyond the reach of our vision.

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Hark! _Ish-sh-ish_! Did you hear that sound, like the whistling of a
rocket? See! Something has fallen upon the tree-top, breaking several
branches! As I live it is the kite! Dead he is, and the blood is
spurting from a wound in his shoulder!

Hark, again! _Whush-sh-ush_! It is the eagle. See! she has the
serpent in her talons!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The eagle had shot down from her elevation, though no eye could have
followed her in that arrow-like descent. When within two or three
hundred yards of the ground, her wings flew out, her tail was spread,
and, suddenly lowered, fan-like to its fullest extent, arrested her
downward course; and, with a few measured strokes, she glided slowly
over the tops of the trees, and alighted on the summit of the dead
magnolia.

Basil seized his rifle, with the intention of having a shot. There was
not much cover on the ground that encircled the tree where the eagle had
perched herself; and the young hunter knew from experience that his only
chance of getting near enough was to make his approach upon horseback.
He therefore drew the picket that fastened Black Hawk; and, flinging
himself upon the horse's back, rode off among the bushes. He had been
gone but a few minutes when a sharp crack was heard, and the eagle was
seen tumbling from her perch.

This was the last link in the _chain of destruction_!

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE WHITE-HEADED EAGLE.

Basil returned, bringing with him the great bird. It was a female--as
Lucien knew--and one of the largest, being over twelve pounds in weight,
and measuring seven feet between the tips of the wings when expanded.
The bird of this species rarely exceeds eight pounds in weight, and is
proportionately small in