I stooped down. My hands collided with the thing that had touched
me. And I found myself clutching--
Something invisible--something which, in that brilliant light,
showed absolutely nothing to my eyes. But my hands told me I was
grasping a very real thing, as real as my fingers themselves.
I made some sort of incoherent exclamation. The others turned and
peered at me.
"What is it?" came Herold's excited voice.
"I don't know!" I gasped. "Come here."
But Sir Henry was the first to reach me. Next instant he, too, was
fingering the tiny, unseen object. And such was his iron nerve and
superior self-control, he identified it almost at once.
"By the lord!"--softly. "Why, it's a small bird! Come here."
Another second and they were all there. I was glad enough of it;
for, like a flash, with an unexpectedness that startles me even
now as I think of it--
The thing became visible. Right in my grasp, a little fluttering
bird came to life.
XXVII
SOLVED
It was a tiny thing, and most amazingly beautiful. It could not
have stood as high as a canary; and had its feathers been made of
gleaming silver they could not have been lovelier. And its black-
plumed head, and long, blossom-like tail, were such as no man on
earth ever set eyes on.
Like a flash it was gone. Not more than a half a second was this
enchanting apparition visible to us.
Pages:
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227