THE PEREGRINE FALCON 
instead of staring thus, with fat red cheeks 
staring like a cat. But the child did not go. 
He still sucked his finger and stared. Although 
lolar did not know it, his fate hung in the 
balance, as he shuffled uneasily under the stare ; 
and the poise was fine, for in the other scale 
were weighty matters a new cap and a sugar- 
stick. 
The great clock struck the hour. It was 
growing late. In an hour or two it would be 
dark, and with the darkness came the cats. 
The child looked furtively at the house, but 
no one appeared at the windows, and the door 
was shut. He stole tip-toed to the cage, and 
lolar shrank back in fear. With unskilful 
fingers the child fumbled at the bolt. lolar 
pecked at him, and half-crying he called out 
that the eagle was a nasty fright, but he 
persevered none the less^ The cage door 
swung back. The child cowered behind it. 
" Tck-Tck ! " he wheedled timidly. Poised 
on the threshold, lolar looked up and for the 
first time for many days he saw the open sky. 
There was a rush, the draught of jubilant 
wings, and then the child gazing up, half- 
gleeful, half-afraid, saw the prisoner circle up 
above the roofs towards the west, before 
vanishing into the sky. 
A great mottled feather fluttered softly: to the 
77 
