The eagle was still soaring overhead, free and buoyant.  It was nearer now, wheeling closer and closer to Reynolds as he clung like a snail to the side of the hill.  And he was made in the image of God!  The thought stung him.  Why should such things be?  Instantly there flashed into his mind a picture he had often seen.  It was the side of a steep cliff, and there a shepherd was rescuing a sheep from its perilous position.  The man was clinging with His left hand to a crevice in the rock, while with His right He was reaching far over to lift up the poor animal, which was looking up pathetically into the shepherd’s loving face.  He knew the meaning of that picture, and it came to him now with a startling intensity.  Why did he think of it? he asked himself.  Although his life was clean, yet Reynolds was not what might be called a religious man.  He was not in the habit of praying, and he seldom went to church.  But something about that picture appealed to him as he crouched on that burning hillside.  Was there One who would help him out of his present difficulty?  He believed there was, for he had been so taught as a little child.  He remembered the Master’s words, “Ask, and ye shall have.”  “Here, then, is a chance to test the truthfulness of that saying,” a voice whispered.

“I shall not do it,” Reynolds emphatically declared.  “I have not prayed for so long, that I’m not going to act the hypocrite now, and cry for help when I’m in a tight corner.  I daresay He would assist me, but I am ashamed to ask Him.  If I should only think of a friend when I am in trouble I should consider myself a mean cur, and unfit to have the friendship of anyone.  And that’s about how I stand with Him, so I do not consider myself worthy of His help.”

Although Reynolds reasoned in this manner, yet that picture of The Good Shepherd inspired him.  He could not get it out of his mind as he lay there watching the eagle soaring nearer and nearer.

“I wonder what that bird is after?” he mused.  “It is coming this way, and it seems to be getting ready to alight.  Perhaps it has a nest somewhere on this hill.”

This thought aroused him.  An eagle’s nest!  It was generally built on some high rocky place, and why should there not be one here?  And if so, there might be eggs, and eggs would mean food for a starving man.

Eagerly and anxiously he watched the bird now, hoping and longing that it would alight close to where he was crouching.  Neither was he disappointed, for in a few minutes the eagle drove straight for the hill, about fifty yards above, and landed upon a rocky ledge.  Seizing a stick lying near, with cat-like agility, Reynolds sprang forward, and hurried to the spot where the bird had alighted.  From what he had heard and read about eagles he surmised that a struggle lay ahead of him, so he clutched the stick firmly as he advanced.