did not even frighten
me. I watched it over my shoulder, swimming strongly, with the tide
now aiding me, now stemming my course; but I saw the shore passing
quickly, and my strength increased, and I shouted when I came in sight
of the house, and scrambled up on the sand, dripping and excited.
There was nobody in sight, and I gave a last glance up into the air
where the bird wheeled, still screeching, and hastened into the house.
Freda stared at me in amazement as I seized the rifle and shouted for
the professor.

"'He has just gone to town, with Captain McPeek in his wagon,'
stammered Freda.

"'What!' I cried. 'Does he know where his daughter is?'

"'Miss Holroyd is asleep--not?' gasped Freda.

"'Where's Frisby?' I cried, impatiently.

"'Yimmie?' quavered Freda.

"'Yes, Jimmie; isn't there anybody here? Good Heavens! where's that
man in the shop?'

"'He also iss gone,' said Freda, shedding tears, 'to buy papier-mache.
Yimmie, he iss gone to post bills.'

"I waited to hear no more, but swung my rifle over my shoulder, and,
hanging the cartridge-belt across my chest, hurried out and up the
beach. The bird was not in sight.

"I had been running for perhaps a minute when, far up on the dunes, I
saw a yellow dog rush madly through a clump of sweet-bay, and at the
same moment a bird soared past, rose, and hung hovering just above the
thicket. Suddenly the bird swooped; there was a shriek and a yelp from
the cur, but the bird gripped it in one claw and beat its wings upon
the sand, striving to rise. Then I saw Frisby--paste, bucket, and
brush raised--fall upon the bird, yelling lustily. The fierce creature
relaxed its talons, and the dog rushed on, squeaking with terror. The
bird turned on Frisby and sent him sprawling on his face, a sticky
mass of paste and sand. But this did not end the struggle. The bird,
croaking horridly, flew at the prostrate bill-poster, and the sand
whirled into a pillar above its terrible wings. Scarcely knowing what
I was about, I raised my rifle and fired twice. A scream echoed each
shot, and the bird rose heavily in a shower of sand; but two bullets
were embedded in that mass of foul feathers, and I saw the wires and
scarlet tape uncoiling on the sand at my feet. In an instant I seized
them and passed the ends around a cedar-tree, hooking the clasps
tight. Then I cast one swift glance upward, where the bird wheeled,
screeching, anchored like a kite to the pallium wires; and I hurried