The Elbert County tribune., 1906-03-08
Ihs Kdnentdre #
"l0ns Boy"
By FRANKLIN WELLES CALKlNS

let himself down, clinglng with both
bands TO the edges. Then cautiously
he felt with his moccasined toes the
face of the ledge. seeking for some
niche or coign of vantage.
While he was thus dangling over the
rim of the ledge he heard shris pierre
ing scream directly overhead, and
looked up to see both the old eagles
lowering along the scarp, not bow
shot above his head.
One of them had poised. Tapping its
great wings, the tips of which almost
brushed the rocks. and he could see
the craned neck and angry red eyes of
the bird as it stopped for a swoop.
The lad made n frantic effort to draw
himself upward. and in the same in
slant the eagle shot downward like
hurled missile. with a kissing scream
that set Lone Boys nerves all a-tingle.
He had drawn himself halfway up.
and was about TO fling a knee upon the
rim of the rock when he got n fierce
buffet from the eagles wing. He was
flung backward. and his hold upon the
rock was broken.
Like falling stone he dropped to the
shelf below, and would have tumbled
headling into the canon but for the
friendly leaning pine. which stretched
some limbs across the path of his de-
scent.
For moment Lone Boy hung. cling
ing to these boughs, half-suspended
over the depths; then he scrambled to
safety under the sheltering pine. He
did this Just in time to escape a fresh
onset from one of the eagles. which
swooped Mt him, screaming wrathfully.
The leaning pine had grown net
work of small limbs. and its foliage
was very dense. Crawling under the
dropping boughs, Lone Boy was able
TO hide himself completely even from
the keen eyes of the eagles. Yet the
birds continued to wheel about their
aerie. noisily excited for a time.
The lad lay very still within his
shelter, peering from under cover at
the pair of newly hedged eaglets, which
had Topped awkwardly off their pile of
sticks when the intruder dropped upon
their perch.
These young birds now hugged the
rock ledge with bodies hattened and
wings dropping. evidently much de-
pressed by the descent of this strange
creature and by the worried screams
of the parent birds.
However, as Lone Boy continued in
hiding. the old eagles became calmer,
and after a time seemed to have forgot
ten altogether the cause of alarm.
They finally sailed away in search of
fresh prey.
Lone Boy now crawled cautiously
out of his hiding place. His first move.
boy-like, was to pounce upon the young
eagles. giving them no opportunity TO
flop off their perch and into the canon.
In a brief time, sitting astride the
two. the lad had cut strings from his
buckskin legglngs. and made fast
leg of each bird to pine shrubs which
grew close to their nest. He tied them
just far enough apart so that they
could not become entangled.
When this was done. he began to
take account of his situation; and very
soon. upon keen scrutiny of the ledge
above and below, he discovered that
without rescue by some passing hunter
or person in search of him, there could
be no hope of escape.
He was raped as the wolf IS
trapped. or even as he had shared the
fawn. The narrow shelf upon which
the eagles nest had been built, and
from which the leaning pine had
grown. was only some ten steps in
length, and but pace or two in
width at the widest. 1t was n hollow
trough, enclosed by a basin-like rim
and was filed with pine cones, needles
and other rubbish. And this little shelf
suspended in mid-air was half bow
shot above the bottom of the canon.
In vain Lone Boy scanned the face
Of the ledge from which he had
dropped. There was no possible hand
hold within reach, and the bushy Pine
had leaned SO far out to catch the ,In-