"Their national bird," said the same airman who had expressed a desire to shoot it.
"How could an American eagle get here?" inquired another man.
"By way of Asia, probably."
"By gad! A long flight!"
Dresslin nodded: "An omen, perhaps, that we may also have to face the Yankee on our Eastern front."
"The swine!" growled several.
Von Dresslin a.s.sented absently to the epithet. But his thoughts were busy elsewhere, his mind preoccupied by a theory which, Hunlike, he, for the last ten days, had been slowly, doggedly, methodically developing.
It was this: a.s.suming that the bird really was an American eagle, the problem presented itself very clearly--from where had it come?
This answered itself; it came from America, its habitat.
Which answer, of course, suggested a second problem; HOW did it arrive?
Several theories presented themselves:
1st. The eagle might have reached Asia from Alaska and so made its way westward as far as the Alps of Switzerland.
2nd. It may have escaped from some public European zoological collection.
3rd. It may have been owned privately and, on account of the scarcity of food in Europe, liberated by its owner.
4th. It MIGHT have been owned by the Englishman whose plane Von Dresslin had destroyed.
And now Von Dresslin was patiently, diligently developing this theory:
If it had been owned by the unknown Englishman whose plane had crashed a year ago in Les Errues forest, then the bird was undoubtedly his mascot, carried with him in his flights, doubtless a tame eagle.
Probably when the plane fell the bird took wing, which accounted for its sudden appearance in mid-air.
Probably, also, it had been taught to follow its master; and, indeed, had followed in one superb plunge earthward in the wake of a dead man in a stricken plane.
But--WAS this the same bird?
For argument, suppose it was. Then why did it still hang over Les Errues? Affection for a dead master? Only a dog could possibly show such devotion, such constancy. And besides, birds are incapable of affection. They only know where to go for kind treatment and security. And tamed birds, even those species domesticated for centuries, know only one impulse that draws them toward any human protector--the desire for food.
Could this eagle remember for a whole year that the man who lay dead somewhere in the dusky wilderness of Les Errues had once been kind to him and had fed him? And was that why the great bird still haunted the air-heights above the forest? Possibly.
Or was it not more logical to believe that here, suddenly cast upon its own resources, and compelled to employ instincts. .h.i.therto uncultivated or forgotten, to satisfy its hunger, this solitary American eagle had found the hunting good? Probably. And, knowing no other region, had remained there, and for the first time, or at least after a long interval of captivity and dependence on man, it had discovered what liberty was and with liberty the necessity to struggle for existence.
An airman, watching Dresslin"s thoughtful features, said:
"You never found out who that Englishman was, did you?
"No."
"Did our agents search Les Errues?"
"I suppose so. But I have never heard anything further about that affair," he shrugged; "and I don"t believe we ever will until after the war, and until--"
"Until Switzerland belongs to us," said an airman with a light laugh.
Others, listening, looked at one another significantly, smiling the patient, confident and brooding smile of the Hun.
Knaus unwittingly wrote his character and his epitaph:
"Ich kann warten."
The forest of Les Errues was deathly still. Hunters and hunted both were as silent as the wild things that belonged there in those dim woods--as cautious, as stealthy.
A dim greenish twilight veiled their movements, the damp carpet of moss dulled sounds.
Yet the hunted knew that they were hunted, realised that pursuit and search were inevitable; and the hunters, no doubt, guessed that their quarry was alert.
Now on the tenth day since their entrance into Les Errues those two Americans who were being hunted came to a little wooded valley through which a swift stream dashed amid rock and fern, flinging spray over every green leaf that bordered it, filling its clear pools with necklaces of floating bubbles.
McKay slipped his pack from his shoulders and set it against a tree.
One of the two carrier pigeons in their cage woke up and ruffled.
Looking closely at the other he discovered it was dead. His heart sank, but he laid the stiff, dead bird behind a tree and said nothing to his companion.
Evelyn Erith now let go of her own pack and, flinging herself on the moss, set her lips to the surface of a br.i.m.m.i.n.g pool.
"Careful of this Alpine water!" McKay warned her. But the girl satisfied her thirst before she rose to her knees and looked around at him.
"Are you tired, Yellow-hair?" he asked.
"Yes.... Are you, Kay?"
He shook his head and cast a glance around him.
It was beautiful, this little woodland vale with its stream dashing through and its slopes forested with beech and birch--splendid great trees with foliage golden green in the sun.
But it was not the beauty of the scene that preoccupied these two.
Always, when ready to halt, their choice of any resting-place depended upon several things more important than beauty.
For one matter the place must afford concealment, and also a water supply. Moreover it must be situated so as to be capable of defence.
Also there must be an egress offering a secure line of retreat.
So McKay began to roam about the place, prowling along the slopes and following the stream. Apparently the topography satisfied him; for after a little while he came back to where Miss Erith was lying on the moss, one arm resting across her eyes.
"You ARE tired," he said.
She removed her arm and looked up at him out of those wonderful golden eyes.