hose fierce buffetings he rejoiced, master of the
gale upon whose fury he flourished--the very spirit of the ocean's
frontiers, arrayed in the spotless uniform of the sea, sailing under
her bold colors.

And then, as he suddenly came, the watcher, had there been one, would
have looked at him expectantly, for an eagle, bristling with weapons,
so to speak, fierce-eyed, mighty, and scowling, came flapping heavily
across the white-fretted bay. There is expression in birds, and most
have their feelings and their character stamped upon their whole body.
But there was no expression in Cob. His cold eyes continued to stare
with steady stoniness, his vast vans to waft an occasional shallow,
lazy quarter-flap, his spotless head to peer down at times. Once only,
as the real king of the birds, on his course, drew very near, so that
you could hear the deep, dry "hough! hough!" of the powerful wings, did
Cob open his red-stained--as it were blood--yellow beak, and give
utterance--one could call it no more--and so instantly close his beak
again and revert to his absolute expressionlessness that one had a job
to realize what, or who, in all that vast scene, had spoken.

"I'm-Great-Black-Back!" he said very quietly, quickly, gratingly, and
tersely; and then, as if expecting an answer, added, "Eh?" in a hollow
undertone.

The eagle's imperial head jerked round as he flew, and he shot a
stabbing, sheathed glance at the great sea-bird, as a king might at a
man in a crowd who begins to fumble at his hip-pocket. But, save for
that, he took no further notice, and beat on with his terrific,
piston-like, regular wing-beats; and the gull, that speckless,
dazzling, hardened, hard giant, laughed--laughed, I say, softly and to
himself, hoarsely and insolently: "How-how-how-how!" It was as if he
laughed in derision.

And then a strange thing happened. From the opposite stupendous
cliffs, draped in snow, bejeweled with icicles, frowning and desolate,
an ominous black shape flung itself furiously, and made straight for
the eagle, barking hoarsely with rage as it came. Another hollow bark
followed, and a second evil ebony form hurled down from the tottering
cliff-top, and flapped towards the eagle in the path of the first.
Bark echoed bark above the deep mutter of the breakers, and the echoes
along the cliffs answered both uncannily and mockingly.

They were a raven, disturbed from her wool-quilted nest, and her mate;
but if they had been