ew.
It was not a scream--as is often heard with these birds--but a cry of
different import, as if a call to some comrade. It was so in fact, for
in a moment it was answered from a distant part of the woods; and the
next moment, another hawk--red-tailed like himself, but much larger--was
seen soaring upwards. This was evidently his mate--for the female of
these birds is always much larger than the males. The two soon came
together, and wheeled above the tree, crossing each other's orbit, and
looking downward. The squirrel now appeared doubly terrified--for he
well knew their intent. He began to run around the trunk, looking
outward at intervals, as though he intended to leap off and take to the
thick woods.

The hawks did not allow him long time to make up his mind. The smaller
one swooped first, but missed the squirrel as before, driving him around
the trunk. There the frightened creature had scarcely halted, when the
great hen-hawk came at him with a whistling rush, and sent him back to
the other side. The male bird had by this time turned and now darted
with such suddenness and precision, that the squirrel, unable to pass
round the tree again, sprang off into the air. Guided by his broad tail
the hawk followed, and before the squirrel could reach the ground, the
bird was seen to strike. Then with a loud scream he rose into the air,
with the squirrel struggling in his talons.

His triumph was a short one. The crack of a shot gun was heard from
behind, and both hawk and squirrel fell heavily to the earth. Another
crack followed, almost instantaneously, and his mate, the great
hen-hawk, came tumbling down with a broken wing, and fluttered over the
grass, screaming like a cat. She was soon silenced by a stroke from the
butt of Francois' gun--both barrels of which were now empty--for it was
Francois that had done the business for the red-tails.

What was most singular of all, the squirrel was not killed either by the
shot or the fall. On the contrary, as Lucien was deliberately stooping
to pick it up--congratulating himself all the while upon his prize--it
suddenly made a spring, shook itself clear of the claws of the dead
hawk; and, streaking off into the woods, ran up a tall tree. All three
followed as fast as they could run; but on reaching the tree--an oak
five feet thick--they saw, to their mortification, the squirrel's hole
about fifty feet from the ground, which, of course, brought that
squirrel hu