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Updated: September 8, 2025
And now Von Dresslin was patiently, diligently developing this theory: If it had been owned by the unknown Englishman whose plane had crashed a year ago in Les Errues forest, then the bird was undoubtedly his mascot, carried with him in his flights, doubtless a tame eagle. Probably when the plane fell the bird took wing, which accounted for its sudden appearance in mid-air.
Not that the Great Secret could be discovered from the air; that danger had been foreseen fifty years ago, and half a century's camouflage screened the results of steady, calculating relentless diligence. But French or British planes might learn of the presence of these enemy agents in the dark forest of Les Errues, and might hang like hawks above it exchanging signals with them.
The others looked at him; one said: "What perplexes you, Von Dresslin?" "That bird." "The eagle?" "The eagle which comes every day to circle above Les Errues. I, an amateur of ornithology am, perhaps, with all modesty, permitted to call myself?" "Certainly," said several airmen at once. Another added: "We all know you to be a naturalist." "Pardon a student only, gentlemen.
"Well, I was just starting into that when the rifle cracked and I jumped for a tree with a broken wing and a bad scare." "You saw the man?" "I did later. He came over to look for dead game, and I ached to let him go; but it was too risky with Les Errues swarming alive with Boches, and me with the stomach-sickness of a shot-up man. "Of course, you did the wise thing and the right one."
They had done a good deal by the middle of the afternoon; they had broiled the big bird, dined luxuriously, had stored the remainder in their packs which they were preparing to carry with them into the forbidden forest of Les Errues.
But the Hun invasion of Les Errues was not to be conducted in force, there must be no commotion there, no stirring, no sound, only a silent, stealthy, death-hunt in that shadowy forest a methodical, patient, thorough preparation to do murder; a swift, noiseless execution. Also, on the 14th, the northern sky beyond the Swiss wire swarmed with Hun airplanes patrolling the border.
And here he halted once more and called across in a resonant, penetrating voice: "Attention, you, over there in the Forest of Les Errues! You had better wake up and listen! Here is a Swiss officer come to speak with you. Show yourselves or answer!" There came no sound from within the illuminated edges of the woods.
Now on the tenth day since their entrance into Les Errues those two Americans who were being hunted came to a little wooded valley through which a swift stream dashed amid rock and fern, flinging spray over every green leaf that bordered it, filling its clear pools with necklaces of floating bubbles. McKay slipped his pack from his shoulders and set it against a tree.
"Listen to reason, you insane American! You can not escape those who are closing in on you those who are filtering the forest for you who are gradually driving you out into the eastern edges of Les Errues! And what then, when at last you are driven like wild game by a line of beaters to the brink of the eastern cliffs? There is no water there. You will die of thirst. There is no food.
"If, therefore, my men fail to discover these bodies, the alarming presumption is forced upon us that these two Americans have once more tricked us; and that they may still be hiding in the Forbidden Forest of Les Errues. "In that event proper and drastic measures will be taken, the air-squadron on the northern frontier co-operating."
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