The path led them to an opening in the forest where a stake-and-rider fence was all that separated them from a great rolling pasture. In the distance were the craggy hills, where great boulders cropped out and the forest was thin and straggly.
It was a narrow valley that lay before the young explorers. Directly opposite was a crag as barren as a bald head.
"Look at the cloud shadow sailing over the field," said Ruth, contemplatively.
Her remark might have passed without comment had not the shadow, thus mentioned, changed form and darted suddenly to one side.
"Hi!" exclaimed Neale. "That's no cloud shadow."
"Look! look!" squealed Tess. "See the aeroplane!"
A flying machine had been exhibited at Milton only a few weeks before, and the aviator had done some fancy flying over the house-roofs of the town. Little wonder that Tess thought this must be another aeroplane, for the huge bird that swooped earthward cast a shadow quite as large as had the aeroplane she had seen.
"The eagle!" exclaimed Neale. "Oh, look! look!"
The whole party--even Tom Jonah--was transfixed with wonder as they observed a huge bird sail slowly across the valley toward them and finally alight upon a bare branch of a tall, dead pine at the edge of the field. There the eagle poised for a few moments, its wings half spread, "tip-tilting," as Agnes said, till he had struck the right balance. Then he settled more comfortably on his perch, turned his head till his harsh beak and evil eye were aimed over his shoulder, steadily viewing something in the field below him.
The bird did not see the party of spectators at the boundary fence; but they quickly discovered the object which the bird of prey observed.
"There! Oh, look there!" gasped Agnes. "_That thing's moving!_"
"Sue Billet--as sure as you live," muttered Neale. "There's Lycurgus--over behind the fence--he's after the eagle!"
"What a dreadful thing!" exclaimed Ruth, aloud. "Is he using his own child for bait! That's what he's doing! Oh, Neale! Oh, Agnes! He's sent that child out there to attract the eagle's attention," Ruth went on to cry. "What a wicked, wicked thing to do!"
Ruth's low cry was involuntary. She did not mean to frighten the little Corner House girls; but they saw and understood as well as the older spectators. Tess and Dot clung together and Dot began to whimper.