THE PEREGRINE FALCON 
the jackdaws scattered at his coming. But it 
was not a stone. He slanted across the roof 
and stared. In the angle of the wall hung a 
small cage, and inside, barred from the free sky 
and sun, fluttered a goldfinch. lolar sheered 
off". There was something uncanny about that 
bird. How came it there and why ? He 
perched in the embrasure of a spirelight and 
considered this strange thing. The goldfinch 
chirruped and beat against the bars. The 
morning air had whetted lolar's appetite, and 
this seemed an easy prey. He pitched before 
the cage, and the bird fluttered piteously. No 
danger here the man had gone. lolar rose 
again and swooped with claws extended. Even 
as he alighted on the cage the steel jaws of 
the rabbit trap gaped and snapped below his 
tarsal joint. He forged forward, dragging the 
gin after him, and under his weight the cage 
slipped from the nail which secured it to the 
parapet and fell to the roof of the tower, 
lolar crashed down to the length of the chain, 
and hung breathless by his feet, with all the 
height to the churchyard-close below him. 
For a minute he gasped, bewildered at the 
inversion of his world, then as his senses reeled 
back to him he understood. The cunning 
live bait to lure him ; the gin ready set above 
the cage, its chain made fast to a staple driven 
57 
