CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS.
The usual silence which succeeds a disappointment was for some time preserved by the three individuals who had been spectators of the unsuccessful attempt of the eagle.

Caspar seemed less cast down than the others; but why it was so, neither of them thought of asking him.
It was not a silence of very long duration, nor was the chagrin that had caused it of much longer continuance.

Both were evanescent as the summer cloud that for a moment darkens the sky, and then glides off-- leaving it bright and serene as ever.
It was to Caspar the party was indebted for this happy change of feeling.

An idea had occurred to the young hunter--or rather a new scheme--which was at once communicated to his companions.
Strictly speaking, Caspar's scheme could not be termed a _new_ one.

It was only supplementary to that already set before them by Karl; and the bearcoot, as before, was to be the chief actor in it.
While calculating the length of rope it would take to reach to the top of the cliff, Caspar had already bethought him of a way by which it might be shortened--in other words, how it might be arranged, that a shorter rope would suffice.