Suddenly Baby Jane uncovered her face.
'Yes, I know of a real spell,' she said smiling, and then with her face turned frankly up to the narrow sky she uttered a few words, which the creatures could not understand, and which puzzled Sammy. 'Now we have only got to wait,' said she.
Soon afterwards a most wonderful thing happened. Overhead suddenly there came the sound of rushing wings, and a gigantic eagle, who had seen the disaster from afar, swooped into the ravine, and, clutching the Bear, was rising with him, when the Lion made a grab at the Bear's feet, and he too was borne upwards. Then Mary Carmichael clasped her forelegs round the Lion, and she ascended also. One after another they seized the last pair of legs, and rose until the whole band was dangling from the Bear's legs. Still the eagle rose, now very like a kite with a long tail, and would have soared with them all into the air had not Edouardo on the top of the precipice seized the last pair of legs as they swayed towards him. That was the last straw, and the eagle let fall the string of creatures with a flop upon the open desert—they were saved!
A string of 'sandwich-men.'
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT CIRCUS