"It did, too," declared Sandy. "Hark! there it is again!"
"It's down by the creek," announced Tom. "I tell you what, fellows, it's fish!"
"Fish!"
"Surely. Fish leaping. Big ones, too, by the sound of them."
Two or three more splashes came while the boys were talking. They hurried down to the creek, and as they went they noted that a great cloud of crows and ravens were hovering above it. Wondering greatly what all this could mean, they quickened their footsteps.
Arrived at the creek, they found the shallow sand bar between its mouth and the sea all aboil with confusion. Masses of fish seemed to be trying to get from the sea into the creek. All at once a great fish eagle swooped down out of a cottonwood on the opposite side of the creek. It struck the water with a splash. There was a brief struggle and then the bird of prey shot upward again. In its talons it held a silver-scaled fish of large size.
"Well, he's going to breakfast all right," remarked Jack ruefully. "My, what a whumping big fish!"
"No wonder: it was a salmon," declared Tom. "This must be the season when they rush up into the rivers to spawn."
"Look! there's lots of them wriggling about on the sand bar!" cried Jack.