Li Kin and the Cockney had come up. Lefty Wister's pinched red face was glistening with alarm.
"What happened? And what's the bloody native doing down there?"
They could see that Shan Kar, farther down the ridge, had reached the fallen eagle. Nelson and the others followed hastily.
The eagle was not dead. Its wing had been broken by Sloan's bullet and it had been flopping away across the rocky ridge in evident effort to escape when Shan Kar stopped it.
Shan Kar looped a hide thong about the great bird's legs, hobbling it. The eagle, a magnificent creature of glistening black plumage and white-crested head, glared at Shan Kar with wonderful golden eyes, trying to strike with its beak.
Shan Kar grasped the crippled wing of the eagle by the tip and deliberately twisted it, tormenting the great bird.
"What the devil!" flamed Nelson. "Put the thing out of its misery!"
The eagle glanced at him swiftly with a flash of golden eyes. It was as though the bird understood. It brought Nelson creepy memory of the intent, intelligent look in the eyes of Nsharra's beasts — of Tark, the wolf, and Hatha, the stallion!
"Let me alone," Shan Kar said tightly, without turning his gaze from the eagle's eyes. "This is necessary."
"Necessary — to torture a dumb animal?" Nelson snapped.