[Dark Saint Alaick]

"The vultures are back," she said. "I am always glad to see them come again."
"Yes," said the man. "They are bully scavengers, and we don't have to pay 'em wages."
The girl smiled up at him.
"I'm afraid my thoughts were more poetic than practical," she said. "I was only thinking that the sky looked less lonely now that they have come. Why suggest their diet?"
"I know what you mean," he said, "I like them too. Maligned as they are, they are really wonderful birds, and sort of mysterious. Did you ever stop to think that you never see a very young one or a dead one? Where do they die? Where do they grow to maturity? I wonder what they've found up there! Let's ride up. Martin said he saw a new calf up beyond Jackknife Canyon yesterday. That would be just about under where they're circling now."
They guided their horses around a large, flat slab of rock that some camper had contrived into a table beneath the sycamore, and started across the trail toward the opposite side of the canyon.
They were in the middle of the trail when the man drew in and listened.
"Someone is coming," he said, "Let's wait and see who it is. I haven't sent any one back into the hills today."