"There he goes!" cried Roger, excitedly. "Oh! what a splash he made! And, Dick, look at him trying to get up again! It's all he can do to rise, beating his wings like a crazy thing. See the fish the fellow has fastened his claws on, Dick. There goes a salmon, I do believe, the very first we've seen!" The big fish hawk was indeed having a hard battle trying to fly with such a large fish in its talons. It fluttered its wings, and still could not manage to get more than twenty feet above the water. As it turned toward the bank, doubtless meaning that, if compelled to release its hold on the glittering prize, the fish should fall upon land where it could be eaten at leisure, Roger gave vent to another exclamation. "When it gets off the river I'm going to shout, and see if I can frighten the hawk into letting that fish drop," he observed, eagerly. "I'll join with you, then," agreed his chum. A few seconds later, Roger made a signal with his paddle at which both of them gave forth a startling yell. Surely enough, the sudden discordant sound startled the fish hawk, and it immediately let its prize go. "There, it landed on the bank!" cried Roger. "Quick! let's paddle ashore before it flops back into the river again. Oh! my first salmon seems to be coming to me from the air after all!" Reaching the bank, Roger sprang ashore, and presently came back, carrying his capture by inserting a finger in the gill. It was indeed a salmon, though only of a comparatively few pounds weight, and nothing compared to myriads they were fated to see later on. "Enough to make a supper for both the captains, and ourselves in the bargain!" explained the triumphant Roger. "And I want to say that never before did I pull in a fish from the air. That's a new way of doing it, Dick. I'll never see an industrious fish hawk after this but that I'll think of what happened to-day." "If you hadn't secured the fish some robber eagle might," declared Dick. "Many a time have I sat and watched one of those bald-headed pirates, perched on a dead limb of a tree, too lazy to pounce down and get a dinner for himself, and only waiting until a hawk flew off with its prize, when, after the other bird, would start the eagle, and ten times out of eleven he was bound to play the robber game." "Yes," added Roger, "I've seen the poor hawk mount high in the air, trying to escape; but with the eagle in hot pursuit. In the end the fish would drop, and the eagle follow after it, snatching his dinner from the air long before it could strike the earth; just as I can let a stone fall, and then overtake it with my hand before it lands."