ously.
In the iron clutch of his talons writhed the great trout, gripped behind
the head and by the middle of the back, its tail thrashing
spasmodically.

Never before had this fierce and majestic visitant from the upper
silence fallen upon so difficult a prey. Its weight, alone, was all that
his mighty wings could lift; and its vehement writhings were so full of
energy that it was all he could do to hold it. With his most strenuous
flapping, he could hardly lift the victim clear of the water. To bear it
off to his lonely rock-ledge on the peak was manifestly impossible.
After a few moments of laborious indecision he beat his way heavily
toward shore. Nowhere, up and down the beach, in the thickets, or in the
dark corridors of the forest, could his piercing eyes detect any foe.

The nearest point of land was an arrow ribbon of clean white rock with a
screen of Indian willow close behind it. This point he made for. A few
feet above the water's edge he alighted. For a moment he stood
haughtily, his hard, implacable yellow eyes challenging the wilderness.
Then, his snake-like white head stooped quickly forward, and his
powerful beak bit clear through to the victim's backbone, a little
behind the spot where it joined the neck. The trout's body stiffened
straight out, with a strong shudder, then lay limp and still. Very
deliberately, as if scorning to display his hunger, the royal bird began
to make his meal.

But one palpitating morsel had gone down his outstretched, snowy throat,
when it seemed to him that a leaf whispered in the willow thicket behind
him. There was no air stirring, so why should a leaf whisper? His claws
relaxed their grip upon the prey; his wings shot out and gave one
powerful flap; he bounced lightly upward and aside. At the same moment a
black bulk burst out from the willow thicket, and a great black paw
smote at him savagely.

The eagle had sprung aside just in time. Had that terrific buffet fairly
reached him, never again would he have mounted to his aerial haunts of
silence. But as it was, the sweep of the black paw just touched the
bird's tail. Two or three dark, regal feathers fluttered to the ground.
His spacious pinions caught the air and winnowed out a few feet over the
water. The bear, content at having captured the prize, paid no more
attention to him, but greedily fell upon the prey.

Ordinarily, an eagle would no more think of interfering with a bear than
of assailing a granite boulde