K) A DANGEROUS ENTERPRISE. 



bag was already three-quarters full, and we were think- 

 ing of rejoining Frank Forester at our hut, when sud- 

 denly, as he passed near the oak of which I have 

 spoken, Whitehead raised his eyes in the air, and 

 uttered an exclamation of joy. On one of the highest 

 boughs of the time-honoured tree he had descried, and he 

 pointed out to me through the branches, an eagle's nest. 

 He had no doubt the eyrie was inhabited, for he had 

 remarked an oscillation among the twigs of which it 

 was composed. There were eaglets in the nest. 



To throw aside his gun and his hunting-bag, to mount, 

 or rather haul himself up the trunk of the tree, was but 

 the work of a moment ; and my comrade executed this 

 gymnastic feat without consulting me, without listening 

 to the cautions I thought it necessary to address to him. 

 After disappearing for awhile in a labyrinth of verdure, 

 I saw him at the edge of the nest, raising his head so as 

 to look into the interior. 



" Good ! good ! " he cried. " Here are a couple of 

 eaglets, and they open their bills as if they would like to 

 swallow me." 



" Take care ! take care ! " I replied. " I see the male 

 or female bird I cannot exactly say which is coming 

 in all haste towards the nest. Come down, I tell you 

 come down ! " 



It was useless to call him. The madman would pay 

 no attention, and continued climbing. Eventually, how- 

 ever, and just as he had stowed away one of the eaglets 

 in his flannel shirt, and was preparing to seize the other, 

 the male eagle for it was he swooped down upon the 

 tree, and with a blow of his huge wing made my daring 

 companion reel. But Whitehead did not lose his prc- 



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