The Crystal Hunters

bird floated between them and the intensely blue sky.

"An eagle!"

"Yes; the lammergeyer--the Alpine eagle."

"But what a name!" said Saxe.

"Suitable enough," said Dale quietly. "We call our little bird of prey a sparrow-hawk. Well, this bird--lammergeyer--is the one which preys on lambs."

The eagle soared higher and higher till it was well above the perpendicular wall of rock on their left, and then glided onward toward the snow, rapidly passing out of sight; while the trio tramped on, passing a chalet here and another there, with its wooden shingled roof laden with great stones to keep all intact against the terrific winds which at times sweep down the valley from the ice ahead. Now their way lay down by the foaming torrent, half choked with ragged pine trunks, torn out of their birthplaces by tempests, or swept away by downfalls of snow or rock; then they panted up some zigzag, faintly marked, where it was impossible to follow the bed of the stream; and as they climbed high