Boy Scouts in California; or, The Flag on the Cliff

by G. Harvey Ralphson

When the eagle came nearer, the boy fired. The huge monarch of the air fell at the base of the cliff, shot through the heart.

“Now,” thought the boy, looking down in dismay, “how am I ever going to get him. It doesn’t seem to me that any human being can descend this precipice.”

After studying the lay of the country for some moments, Ned decided to at least make an attempt to reach the eagle. Removing his coat, and leaving his revolver and searchlight upon the ledge as too cumbersome to carry, he started down toward where the bird lay. He had indeed reached the snow line, for the crevices in the wall down which he clambered were filled with frost. It was a long, long journey down to the ledge below, and dangerous, too, but the boy finally succeeded in reaching the spot where the eagle lay.

It was a noble bird, something like seven feet from tip to tip, and Ned realized that he would have his hands full in conveying it to the shelf where he had very foolishly left his coat and his weapon.

“I must have been out of my head to leave the articles there!” he exclaimed, annoyed at his own reckless act. “Now,” he went on, “I’ve got to climb back up that almost perpendicular wall and get there before dark, too. If I had only brought the things with me the way to camp would be easier.”

After several attempts to climb the wall of rock, Ned was brought to the conclusion that the feat was impossible. The downward climb had been difficult, but the return was out of the question. After a further study of the situation, he passed along the ledge to a slope which seemed to him to lead to the shelf above. In ten minutes, he found to his dismay that the slope did not connect with the shelf he sought.

However, the only thing for him to do was to proceed on the way he had chosen, in the hope that some arrangement of surfaces would permit of his return to the point where he had left the articles mentioned.

At last he came to a narrow shelf of rock in front of which was a straight fall of hundreds of feet. Above him the crag rose to a height almost as great. The shelf was not more than two feet in width, and there were places where the rock had crumbled away so that the breadth was cut down to less than six inches.

Very much disgusted with his own thoughtlessness, Ned turned toward a slope to the east and tried to make his way off the dangerous elevation. As he did so, he heard a whir of wings and felt fanning pinions brush his back.

Turning he saw two huge eagles hovering in the air hardly a yard away. Their vicious eyes were fixed angrily upon him. Involuntarily the boy reached for his revolver but, of course, did not find it in its usual place. It reposed on the shelf hundreds of feet away!