"But he swept past in a single magnificent curve, screaming, then banked swiftly and plunged straight downward in the very path of the British plane."
Nobody spoke. Von Dresslin twirled his flower and looked at it in an absent-minded way.
"From that glimpse, a year ago, I believe I had seen a species of eagle the proper habitat of which is North America," he said.
An airman remarked grimly: "The Yankees are migrating to Europe. Perhaps their eagles are coming too."
"To pick our bones," added another.
And another man said laughingly to Von Dresslin: "Fritz, did you see in that downfall of the British enemy, and the dramatic appearance of a Yankee eagle in his place, anything significant?"
"By gad," cried another airman, "we had John Bull by his fat throat, and were choking him to death. And now--the Americans!"
"If I dared cross the border and shoot that Yankee eagle to-morrow," began another airman; but they all knew it wouldn't do.
One said: "Do you suppose, Von Dresslin, that the bird we see is the one you saw a year ago?"
"It is possible."
"An American white-headed eagle?"
"I feel quite sure of it."
"Their national bird," said the same airman who had expressed a desire to shoot it.
"How could an American eagle get here?" inquired another man.
"By way of Asia, probably."
"By gad! A long flight!"
Dresslin nodded: "An omen, perhaps, that we may also have to face the Yankee on our Eastern front."
"The swine!" growled several.
Von Dresslin assented absently to the epithet. But his thoughts were busy elsewhere, his mind preoccupied by a theory which, Hunlike, he, for the last ten days, had been slowly, doggedly, methodically developing.
It was this: Assuming that the bird really was an American eagle, the problem presented itself very clearly--from where had it come? This answered itself; it came from America, its habitat.
Which answer, of course, suggested a second problem; HOW did it arrive?
Several theories presented themselves: 1st. The eagle might have reached Asia from Alaska and so made its way westward as far as the Alps of Switzerland.
2nd. It may have escaped from some public European zoological collection.
3rd. It may have been owned privately and, on account of the scarcity of food in Europe, liberated by its owner.
4th. It MIGHT have been owned by the Englishman whose plane Von Dresslin had destroyed.
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.