hot, and
Horner, having slaked his thirst at the spring in the rock, had tried
rather ineffectually to satisfy his hunger on grass roots, that the
male eagle reappeared, winging heavily from the farthest end of the
lake. From his talons dangled a limp form, which Horner presently made
out to be a duck.

"Good!" he muttered to himself. "I always did like fowl better'n
fish."

When the eagle arrived, he seemed to notice something different in
the situation, for he wheeled slowly overhead for some minutes,
uttering sharp yelps of interrogation. But the appeals of the
youngster at last brought him down, and he delivered up the prize. The
moment he was gone, Horner crept up to where the youngster was already
tearing the warm body to pieces. Angry and hungry, the bird made a
show of fighting for his rights; but his late experience with his
invincible conqueror had daunted him. Suddenly he hopped away, the
full length of his tether; and Horner picked up the mangled victim.
But his appetite was gone by this time; he was not yet equal to a diet
of raw flesh. Tossing the prize back to its rightful owner, he
withdrew painfully to grub for some more grass roots.

[Illustration: "After this the eagle came regularly every three or four
hours with food for the prisoner."]

After this the eagle came regularly every three or four hours with
food for the prisoner. Sometimes it was a fish--trout, or brown
sucker, or silvery chub--sometimes a duck or a grouse, sometimes a
rabbit or a muskrat. Always it was the male, with that grim black
streak across the side of his white face, who came. Always Horner made
a point of taking the prize at once from the angry youngster, and then
throwing it back to him, unable to stomach the idea of the raw flesh.
At last, on the afternoon of the third day of his imprisonment, he
suddenly found that it was not the raw flesh, but the grass roots,
which he loathed. While examining a fine lake-trout, he remembered
that he had read of raw fish being excellent food under the right
conditions. This was surely one of those right conditions. Picking
somewhat fastidiously, he nevertheless managed to make so good a meal
off that big trout that there was little but head and tail to toss
back to his captor.

"Never mind, pardner!" he said seriously. "I'll divide fair nex' time.
But you know you've been havin' more'n your share lately."

But the bird was so outraged that for a long time he would not look at
thes