Ha! it is gone too--they are beyond the reach of our vision.
-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hark! _Ish-sh-ish_! Did you hear that sound, like the whistling of a rocket?
See! Something has fallen upon the tree-top, breaking several branches! As I live it is the kite! Dead he is, and the blood is spurting from a wound in his shoulder! Hark, again! _Whush-sh-ush_! It is the eagle.

See! she has the serpent in her talons! -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The eagle had shot down from her elevation, though no eye could have followed her in that arrow-like descent.

When within two or three hundred yards of the ground, her wings flew out, her tail was spread, and, suddenly lowered, fan-like to its fullest extent, arrested her downward course; and, with a few measured strokes, she glided slowly over the tops of the trees, and alighted on the summit of the dead magnolia.
Basil seized his rifle, with the intention of having a shot.

There was not much cover on the ground that encircled the tree where the eagle had perched herself; and the young hunter knew from experience that his only chance of getting near enough was to make his approach upon horseback.
He therefore drew the picket that fastened Black Hawk; and, flinging himself upon the horse's back, rode off among the bushes.

He had been gone but a few minutes when a sharp crack was heard, and the eagle was seen tumbling from her perch.
This was the last link in the _chain of destruction_!.