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Animal Heroes by Ernest Thompson Seton
page 47 of 201 (23%)
the very best at any price he must have, and Arnaux, with seven
indelible records on his pinions, was the chosen messenger. An
hour went by, another, and a third was begun, when with whistle
of wings, the blue meteor flashed into the loft. Billy slammed
the door and caught him. Deftly he snipped the threads and handed
the roll to the banker. The old man turned deathly pale, fumbled
it open, then his color came back. "Thank God!" he gasped, and
then went speeding to his Board meeting, master of the situation.
Little Arnaux had saved him.

The banker wanted to buy the Homer, feeling in a vague way that
he ought to honor and cherish him; but Billy was very clear about
it. "What's the good? You can't buy a Homer's heart. You could
keep him a prisoner, that's all; but nothing on earth could make
him forsake the old loft where he was hatched." So Arnaux stayed
at 2ll West Nineteenth Street. But the banker did not forget.

There is in our country a class of miscreants who think a flying
Pigeon is fair game, because it is probably far from home, or
they shoot him because it is hard to fix the crime. Many a noble
Homer, speeding with a life or death message, has been shot down
by one of these wretches and remorselessly made into a pot-pie.
Arnaux's brother Arnolf, with three fine records on his wings,
was thus murdered in the act of bearing a hasty summons for the
doctor. As he fell dying at the gunner's feet, his superb wings
spread out displayed his list of victories. The silver badge on
his leg was there, and the gunner was smitten with remorse. He
had the message sent on; he returned the dead bird to the Homing
Club, saying that he "found it." The owner came to see him; the
gunner broke down under cross-examination, and was forced to
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