A NEW DEAL
The sky was so blue and fleckless, the air so clear, the spring grass
so green, and all nature so tranquil at this moment that there was
little wonder Nurse Brown and little Marian, as well as Myron himself,
suspected no threatening danger. The shadow of the descending eagle
might have been that of a cloud crossing the face of the sun.
But Oriole and Teddy Ford, on the summit of the low ridge overlooking
the glade where the nurse and the twins were, saw Myron's peril
plainly. The great bird of prey was swooping directly upon the little
boy. Its shadow completely mantled Myron, who was stooping with his
back to the direction from which the bird was coming.
"He'll be killed!" shouted Teddy Ford. "That eagle's a killer!"
"Oh, Teddy, save him!" cried Oriole in return.
She knew little about the ferocity of a hungry eagle, or one with a
nestful of eaglets to supply with food. Sheep and even young calves
have been killed or carried away by the Rocky Mountain eagle--the
largest of its tribe in North America. In addition to its strength and
savageness, the eagle knows no fear.
Quite involuntarily Oriole herself started to help Myron. She did not
know what she could do, but she started Molly, the pony, forward and
rode smartly down the slope toward the unsuspecting Myron.
"Why, Oriole Putnam! where did you come from?" was Nurse Brown's
greeting, as she saw the girl flying toward them. "And who is that with
you?"
Oriole could not stop to reply. Molly carried her past the pony
phaeton, and then the horse swerved and snorted. The beat of the
eagle's pinions startled Molly, and she shied.
Oriole, however, kept her seat pluckily. Had she only been able to
stoop from her saddle and whisk Myron out of danger--as one of the
cowboys could have done!
But that feat was quite beyond her power. Indeed, the girl was so
frightened--frightened for Myron--that she scarcely thought of any plan
of action. She merely urged Molly on, hoping that her coming would
drive the great bird away. For she did not understand the courage and
savageness of this, the king of the feathered tribes.
However, her appearance on horseback so near the stooping child made
the eagle swerve. It mounted again, wheeled, and with a hoarse cry
swooped again. At this Myron was startled and stood up to see what was
happening, while Nurse Brown and Marian began to scream.
"Oh! Oh! Shoo that naughty bird away, Oriole!" shrieked little Marian.
"It'll eat up Mywon."
"Use your quirt, child!" commanded Sadie Brown earnestly.
But Oriole had no quirt with her. She had found Molly so gentle and
kind that she had seen no reason for carrying the heavy whip which the
punchers seemed to consider a necessary part of their equipment when
riding.
Now she found out why this was so. Not always was the quirt needed to
discipline the mount. Had she possessed the heavy whip Oriole could
have beaten off the eagle in its second swoop upon the frightened twin.
As it was, Molly leaped aside again, snorting, and the pinions of the
frantic eagle almost swept Oriole from her seat in the saddle. Myron
looked up to see the distended talons of the great bird and its fierce
eyes just overhead. The little boy did not shriek aloud, but he cast
himself face down on the grass.
It was the wisest move he could have made, although without doubt Myron
did it quite involuntarily. The great eagle came down with its legs so
widely astride that it straddled the little blue-clad body of the boy,
with its talons not even touching Myron's clothing!
To Oriole, whirling her pony at a distance of only a few yards to
charge back bravely at the fierce bird, the landing of the latter was
like the landing of an aeroplane. The eagle seemed to rebound from the
force of its contact with the sward. But it stopped directly over the
prostrate Myron.
"Hit him! Oh, if I only had a gun!" screamed Nurse Brown.
But nobody had a weapon--that is, nobody on the spot. And even the
cowpunchers on the Three-bar and the neighboring ranches seldom carried
six-shooters in their belts save on night-watch when wolves or big cats
were likely to come down from the mountains to prey upon the herds.
In any case, there was no chance of killing the eagle right at this
moment, and to drive it away from its prey seemed impossible. But
Oriole urged her pony toward the huge bird, crying out as well for
Myron to lie still. Oriole realized that if the child remained quiet
the bird would be less savage. Somewhere she had heard or read that
these huge birds of prey did not care for dead game--although the idea
has often been exploded in fact. However, Myron's struggles would have
excited the eagle to greater rage.
Molly swerved sharply again. The pony was afraid of the huge bird--and
well she might be! Nor could Oriole do anything in reality to beat off
the eagle.
It was Teddy Ford who not only had it in his power to aid Myron, but
had the self-possession and bravery necessary to do so. He came running
down the slope of the ridge, and as he ran he whirled the loop of
Oriole's lariat about his head.
"Get away, Oriole!" he shouted. "Look out!"
Molly carried Oriole out of the way with no effort on the latter's
part. The coils of the lariat whisked through the air, the loop
hovering for an instant over the big bird. Then the loop settled and
Teddy flung himself backward on the ground, his bootheels digging into
the sod.
[Illustration: THE COIL OF THE LARIAT WHISKED THROUGH THE AIR.]
The eagle vented a scream that fairly made Oriole's blood run cold. She
had no idea that the bird could utter such a savage challenge.
The loop encircled the bird's neck and one of its great wings. Teddy
began pulling in on the rope, and the loop tightened. The eagle was
dragged away from the prostrate Myron, and hopped most awkwardly over
the ground.
Teddy scrambled to his feet, jumping on the slack of the rope. He
shouted again to Oriole:
"Get that kid out of the way! Hurry, now!"
Oriole obeyed eagerly. She got down from the saddle and let Molly
run away if she would--although the pony did not run far--while she
gathered the frightened Myron in her arms.
She ran toward Nurse Brown and the phaeton. She thought they all might
drive away from the vicinity of the huge and angry bird. But Myron
struggled to be put down.
"I'm not going to be carried by a girl!" gasped the little fellow.
"Haven't I got legs of my own?"
His pride was greater than his fear of the eagle, and he would not even
take Oriole's hand as he ran toward his sister and the nurse.
"Look at that crazy boy!" cried Sadie Brown.
She referred to Teddy Ford, not to little Myron Langdon. The boy who
had so promptly come to Myron's aid was playing the great eagle just
as though it were a fish. When it sought to leap into the air, Teddy
dragged hard on the rope and pulled the eagle down. The latter would
gladly have escaped now; but Teddy would not loosen the noose.
The struggle between boy and bird continued for several minutes. Once
the eagle rose so far that he fairly yanked Teddy from the ground. But
either the boy's weight was too great or the entangling rope crippled
the bird's flight too seriously for the flight to be successful.
Altogether it was a strange and threatening struggle to observe. Oriole
and Sadie Brown were thrilled by it, although the twins were too
frightened to feel much admiration for Teddy Ford in his novel act as
eagle tamer.
They were all so interested, however, that at first they did not
observe the approach of another actor on the scene. But down from the
range on which the cattle grazed came a great black horse with a rider
that urged him on with whip and spur when he saw what was happening in
the little valley. Myron spied this riding figure first.
"Here comes daddy! Now that old eagle will get his!" cried the little
boy, with perfect confidence in his father's might and wisdom.
Teddy Ford had too much to do just then to notice the approach of the
ranchman. But Oriole and the nurse were glad indeed to see Mr. Langdon.
The owner of the Three-bar Ranch drew in the black stallion and spun
him around with a skillful manipulation of the reins. He leaped from
his saddle and started for the struggling eagle, quirt in hand,
shouting to Teddy:
"Let her loose, boy! You'll cut the bird to pieces if you drag on the
rope that way. Loosen up!"
"Well, of all things!" ejaculated the plain-speaking Sadie Brown.
"Don't you suppose, Harvey Langdon, that we want to kill that horrid
thing?"
But Teddy Ford had instinctively obeyed the ranchman's command. The
noose once loosened, the eagle hopped away awkwardly. Mr. Langdon, who
wore heavy gauntlets, rushed in, avoided a stroke of the eagle's right
wing, and seized the ruffled neck of the bird.
"Oh, Mr. Langdon, he'll bite you!" cried Oriole.
The ranchman merely laughed, loosened the noose of the lariat, and
threw the rope entirely off the eagle. Then he leaped back, letting the
monster bird go free.
"Oh, Daddy, I wanted that bird!" shrieked Myron, although his little
sister was still hiding her eyes and sobbing with fright.
"I guess not. We don't kill or maim eagles if we can help it," said
Harvey Langdon promptly. "Don't you realize that is an American
eagle--the noblest bird that flies? And the salmon fishers along the
West Coast have all but exterminated them. That sort of people have no
patriotism----"
"'Patriotism!'" scoffed Sadie Brown. "A little more and that eagle
would have carried away Myron and you would never have seen the poor
child again."
"What's that?" exclaimed the ranchman, sharply.
"That's what I'm telling you, Harvey Langdon. If it hadn't been for
this boy--Well, I declare, if it isn't Teddy Ford."
For the first time the nurse looked at Teddy long enough to recognize
him. Mr. Langdon turned, too, and stared at the boy now quietly coiling
Oriole's lariat.
"Hullo, Ted," the ranchman said, after a moment. "Tell us about this.
What's going on here?"
Teddy had been watching the heavy flight of the eagle with something
like disappointment. He dragged his gaze back from the mounting eagle
and looked at Mr. Langdon. Color rose in his tanned cheeks.
But before he could speak Oriole broke in. It was she who explained to
Mr. Langdon the attack of the eagle on Myron and what had followed. And
the girl saw to it that the story lacked nothing in the telling. She
"played up" Teddy Ford's victory over the eagle in a masterly fashion,
and as she talked Mr. Langdon's eyes began to twinkle and a smile
wreathed his lips.
"I see very well, Ted," he finally observed, "that you are bound to
be a good angel to my children. I have just got to look on you in an
entirely different light from that in which I saw you when we met the
last time. We'll let that old trouble slide, if you say so, Ted. This
is a new deal."
He strode forward and offered his hand to the abashed boy.
"This is a new deal," he repeated. "Bygones are bygones. I am very
thankful to you for what you have been able to do for me and mine on
these two occasions. And I am sorry that in the heat of anger I accused
you as I did last fall and drove you away from the Three-bar."
"My goodness!" whispered Sadie Brown to Oriole, who had ridden near to
the phaeton on Molly. "My goodness! I never heard Harvey Langdon own up
he was wrong before."
The ranchman's frank avowal of his mistake impressed Teddy Ford as
well. The boy took the man's hand modestly.
"That's all right, sir," he said gruffly. "Mebbe you ain't so much to
blame. You didn't know me very well. Is--is there a job here for me
now?"
"Surest thing you know!" declared the father of the twins. "You go to
Sol Perkins. I have already spoken to him about you, for Oriole, here,
said you were surely coming."
He chuckled, and his eyes twinkled again with mischief. "That girl has
got a lot of faith in you, boy, if nobody else has."