rder to approach
unobserved. Pausing a moment to listen, the clank of a chain came
faintly to our ears, then a growling, worrying noise, heard when two
creatures, jealous of each other's rights, eat from the same piece.

"Game!" whispered Rod.

Climbing quietly up the steep side, we peeped out from amid the green
boughs. We had got up within nine or ten rods; but intervening bushes
partially hid the carcass. Something was moving about it,
however--something black. The trap chains were rattling. Then a big
black head was raised, to growl; and as if in reply came a sharp snarl
from some animal out of sight. The black creature darted forward; and
a great uproar arose, growling, grappling, and spitting, at which
there flew up a whole flock of crows, cawing and hawing; and the noise
increasing, there sprang into the air, at a single flap, a great
yellow bird, uttering a savage scream.

"An eagle!" whispered Rod; "and that black creature's a bear, I guess.
Can't see him just plainly. Growls like one, though. Fighting with
some other animal--isn't he? Some sort of a cat, by the spitting."

"Shall we fire on them?" said I.

"No; let 'em have it out," said Rod. "One of them will be pretty sure
to get chewed up, and the other won't leave the carcass. Besides, the
cat's in the trap, I reckon, by the rattling." For the jingling of the
chain could still be heard over the howling they were making. But ere
the fight had lasted many seconds, a suppressed screech, followed by a
crunching sound, told ill for one or the other of the combatants. "The
cat's got his death hug," muttered Rod.

Presently the bear--a great, clumsy-looking fellow--came out into
view, strutted along, scrubbing his feet on the grass, like a dog, and
went back to the carcass. The eagle and the crows had come back to it.
They flew before him.

"Keep your eye on the eagle," whispered Rod. "I would like to get him.
It isn't a 'white head.' Never saw one like it."

The great bird circled slowly several times, then stooped, almost
touching the bear's shaggy back with its hooked talons. At that the
bear raised his ugly muzzle, all reeking from his feast, and growled
menacingly. This was repeated several times, the bear warning him off
at each stoop, and sometimes striking with his big paw. Finding the
bear not inclined to divide with him, the eagle, with one mighty flap
of his wings, rose up to the top of a tall hemlock standing near, and
perched upon it. We co