A TORPEDO IN FEATHERS 159 



over to snatch up the prize. But he jumped 

 back with alacrity as his father snapped : 

 " Look out ! " 



" What for ? " he demanded, rather 

 sheepishly. 



" Why," replied the older man, " he'll stick 

 you like a pig with that knife beak of his'n, 

 if ye don't look sharp ! Reach me yer jacket. 

 We'll wrap up his head till we kin get him 

 clear o' the net." 



The youth obeyed. Helplessly swathed in 

 the heavy homespun jacket, whose strong man 

 smell enraged and daunted him, the great bird 

 was disentangled from the net and lifted into 

 the boat. Laughingly the father passed 

 the bundle along the gunwale to his son. 



But swathing a powerful bird in a jacket is 

 a more or less inexact undertaking, as many 

 have found in experimenting with wounded 

 hawks and eagles. By some lucky wriggle 

 the loon got his head free. Instantly, with all 

 the force of his powerful neck-muscles, he 

 drove his beak halfway through the fleshy 

 part of his old enemy's arm. With a startled 

 yell the lad dropped him. He bounded from 

 the gunwale and rolled into the water. The 

 man snatched at him and caught a flopping 

 sleeve of the j acket . The j acket promptly and 

 neatly unrolled, and the loon, diving deep, 



