“Say, I have an idea,” came from Bony.
“Don’t let it get away from you,” advised Nat.
“No, I’m serious,” went on the lanky youth. “I think these men have some strange beast or bird in captivity, and that it gets away from them at times. Maybe that’s what happened here, and they had to fight to capture it again.”
“That’s nonsense!” exclaimed Sam.
“Not so nonsensical, either,” Jack hastened to say. “If it was an immense bird, like a big eagle, it would account for the noises we heard—at least, some of them.”
“But there is no eagle large enough for men to ride on its back,” objected Nat.
“How do you know men were on its back?”
“Didn’t we hear them call and speak about our camp fire? How could they see it unless they were up high in the air, on the back of some big bird?”
“They might have been on some point of the mountain above us,” said Bony. “They could have the eagle, or whatever it was, tied by a cord.”