Across the Zodiac

by Percy Greg

  CHAPTER VII - ESCORT DUTY.

  Immediately after breakfast the next morning my host invited me to thegate of his garden, where stood one of the carriages I had seen beforein the distance, but never had an opportunity of examining. It restedon three wheels, the two hind ones by far larger than that in front,which merely served to sustain the equilibrium of the body and tosteer. The material was the silver-like metal of which most Martialvessels and furniture are formed, every spar, pole, and cross-piecebeing a hollow cylinder; a construction which, with the extremelightness of the metal itself, made the carriage far lighter than anyI had seen on Earth. The body consisted of a seat with sides, back,and footboard, wide enough to accommodate two persons with ease. Itwas attached by strong elastic fastenings to a frame consisting offour light poles rising from the framework in which the axles turned;completely dispensing with the trouble of springs, while affording amore complete protection from anything like jolting. The steering gearconsisted of a helm attached to the front wheel and coming up withineasy reach of the driver's hand. The electric motive power andmachinery were concealed in a box beneath the seat, which was indeedbut the top of this most important and largest portion of thecarriage. The poles sustained a light framework supporting a canopy,which could be drawn over the top and around three sides of thecarriage, leaving only the front open. This canopy, in the presentinstance, consisted of a sort of very fine silken material, thicklyembroidered within and without with feathers of various colours andsizes, combined in patterns of exquisite beauty. My host requested meto mount the carriage with him, and drove for some distance, teachingme how to steer, and how, by pressing a spring, to stop or slacken themotion of the vehicle, also how to direct it over rough ground and upor down the steepest slope on which it was available. When wereturned, the Regent's carriage was standing by the gate, and twoothers were waiting at a little distance in the rear. The Regent, witha companion, was already seated, and as soon as we reached the gate,Eveena appeared. She was enveloped from head to foot in a cloak ofsomething like swans-down covering her whole figure, loose, like theordinary outer garments of both sexes, and gathered in at the waist bya narrow zone of silver, with a sort of clasp of some bright greenjewel; and a veil of white satin-looking material covered the wholehead and face, and fell half-way to the waist. Her gloved right handwas hidden by the sleeve of her cloak; that of the left arm was turnedback, and the hand which she gave me as I handed her to the seat on myleft was bare--a usage both of convenience and courtesy. At Esmo'srequest, the Regent, who led the way, started at a moderate pace, notexceeding some ten miles an hour. I observed that on the roofs of allthe houses along the road the inhabitants had gathered to watch us;and as my companion was so completely veiled, I did not baulk theircuriosity by drawing the canopy. I presently noticed that the girlheld something concealed in her right sleeve, and ventured to ask herwhat she had there.

  "Pardon me," she said; "if we had been less hurried, I meant to haveasked your permission to bring my pet _esve_ with me." Drawing backher sleeve, she showed a bird about the size of a carrier-pigeon, butwith an even larger and stronger beak, white body, and wings and tail,like some of the plumage of the head and neck, tinted with gold andgreen. Around its neck was a little string of silver, and suspendedfrom this a small tablet with a pencil or style. Since by her look andmanner she seemed to expect an answer, I said--

  "I am very glad you have given me the opportunity of makingacquaintance with another of those curiously tame and manageableanimals which your people seem to train to such wonderful intelligenceand obedience. We have birds on Earth which will carry a letter from astrange place to their home, but only homewards."

  "These," she answered, "will go wherever they are directed, if theyhave been there before and know the name of the place; and if thisbird had been let loose after we had left, he would have found me, ifnot hidden by trees or other shelter, anywhere within a score ofmiles."

  "And have your people," I asked, "many more such wonderfullyintelligent and useful creatures tamed to your service, besides theambau, the tyree, and these letter-carriers?"

  "Oh yes!" she answered. "Nearly all our domestic animals will doanything they are told which lies within their power. You have seenthe tyree marching in a line across a field to pick up every singleworm or insect, or egg of such, within the whole space over which theymove, and I think you saw the ambau gathering fruit. It is not veryusual to employ the latter for this purpose, except in the trees. Haveyou not seen a big creature--I should call it a bird, but a bird thatcannot fly, and is covered with coarse hair instead of feathers? It isabout as tall as myself, but with a neck half as long as its body, anda very sharp powerful beak; and four of these _carvee_ would clear afield the size of our garden (some 160 acres) of weeds in a couple ofdays. We can send them, moreover, with orders to fetch a certainnumber of any particular fruit or plant, and they scarcely ever forgetor blunder. Some of them, of course, are cleverer than others. Thecleverest will remember the name of every plant in the garden, andwill, perhaps, bring four or even six different kinds at a time; butgenerally we show them a leaf of the plant we want, or point out tothem the bed where it is to be found, and do not trouble their memorywith more than two different orders at a time. The Unicorns, as youcall them, come regularly to be milked at sunset, and, if toldbeforehand, will come an hour earlier or later to any place pointedout to them. There were many beasts of burden before the electriccarriages were invented, so intelligent that I have heard the ridernever troubled himself to guide them except when he changed hispurpose, or came to a road they had not traversed before. He wouldsimply tell them where to go, and they would carry him safely. Theonly creature now kept for this purpose is the largest of our birds(the _caldecta_), about six feet long from head to tail, and withwings measuring thrice as much from tip to tip. They will sail throughthe air and carry their rider up to places otherwise inaccessible. Butthey are little used except by the hunters, partly because the dangeris thought too great, partly because they cannot rise more than about4000 feet from the sea-level with a rider, and within that heightthere are few places worth reaching that cannot be reached moresafely. People used to harness them to balloons till we found means todrive these by electricity--the last great invention in the way oflocomotion, which I think was completed within my grandfather'smemory."

  "And," I asked, "have you no animals employed in actually cultivatingthe soil?"

  "No," she replied, "except the weeding birds of whom I have told you.When we have a piece of ground too small for our electric ploughs, wesometimes set them to break it up, and they certainly reduce the soilto a powder much finer than that produced by the machine."

  "I should like to see those machines at work."

  "Well," answered Eveena, "I have no doubt we shall pass more than oneof them on our way."

  As she said this we reached the great road I had crossed on myarrival, and turning up this for a short distance, sufficient,however, to let me perceive that it led to the seaport town of which Ihave spoken, we came to a break in the central footpath, just wideenough to allow us to pass. Looking back on this occasion, I observedthat we were followed by the two other carriages I have mentioned, butat some distance. We then proceeded up the mountain by a narrow road Ihad not seen in descending it. On either side of this lay fields ofthe kind already described, one of which was in course of cultivation,and here I saw the ploughs of which my companion had spoken. Evidentlyconstructed on the same principle as the carriages, but of muchgreater size, and with heavier and broader wheels, they tore up andbroke to pieces a breadth of soil of some two yards, working to adepth of some eighteen inches, with a dozen sharp powerful triangularshares, and proceeding at a rate of about fifty yards per minute.Eveena explained that these fields were generally from 200 to 600yards square. The machine having traversed the whole field in onedirection, then recommenced its work, ploughing at right angles to theformer, and carrying behind it a sort of harrow, consisting of hookssupported by light, hollow,
metallic poles fixed at a certain angle tothe bar forming the rearward extremity of the plough, by which thesurface was levelled and the soil beaten into small fragments; brokenup, in fact, as I had seen, not less completely than ordinary gardensoil in England or Flanders. When it reached the end of its course,the plough had to be turned; and this duty required the employment oftwo men, one at each end of the field, who, however, had no other ormore difficult labour than that of turning the machine at thecompletion of each set of furrows. In another field, already doublyploughed, a sowing machine was at work. The large seeds were placedsingly by means of an instrument resembling a magnified ovipositor,such as that possessed by many insects, which at regulated intervalsmade a hole in the ground and deposited a seed therein. Eveenaexplained that where the seed and plant were small, a continuousstream was poured into a small furrow made by a different instrumentattached to the same machine, while another arm, placed a little tothe rear, covered in the furrow and smoothed the surface. In reply toanother question of mine--"There are," she said, "some score ofdifferent wool or hair bearing animals, which are shorn twice in theyear, immediately after the rains, and furnish the fibre which iswoven into most of the materials we use for dress and other householdpurposes. These creatures adapt themselves to the shearing machineswith wonderful equanimity and willingness, so that they are seldom ornever injured."

  "Not even," I asked, "by inexperienced or clumsy hands?"

  "Hands," she said, "have nothing to do with the matter. They have onlyto send the animal into the machine, and, indeed, each goes in of hisown accord as he sees his fellow come out."

  "And have you no vegetable fibres," I said, "that are used forweaving?"

  "Oh yes," she answered, "several. The outer dress I wear indoors ismade of a fibre found inside the rind of the fruit of the algyro tree,and the stalks of three or four different kinds of plants affordmaterials almost equally soft and fine."

  "And your cloak," I asked, "is not that made of the skin of someanimal?"

  "Yes," she replied, "and the most curious creature I have heard of. Itis found only in the northern and southern Arctic land-belts, to whichindeed nearly all wild animals, except the few small ones that areencouraged because they prey upon large and noxious insects, are nowconfined. It is about as large as the Unicorns, and has, like them,four limbs; but otherwise it more resembles a bird. It has a bird'slong slight neck, but a very small and not very bird-like head, with along horny snout, furnished with teeth, something between a beak and amouth. Its hind limbs are those of a bird, except that they have moreflesh upon the lowest joints and are covered with this soft down. Itsfront limbs, my father says, seem as if nature had hesitated betweenwings and arms. They have attached to them several long, sharp,featherless quills starting from a shrivelled membrane, which makethem very powerful and formidable weapons, so that no animal likes toattack it; while the foot has four fingers or claws with, which itclasps fish or small dragons, especially those electric dragons ofwhich you have seen a tame and very much enlarged specimen, and soholds them that they cannot find a chance of delivering their electricshock. But for the _Thernee_ these dragons, winged as they are, wouldmake those lands hardly habitable either for man, or other beasts. Allour furs are obtained from those countries, and the creatures fromwhich they are derived are carefully preserved for that purpose, itbeing forbidden to kill more than a certain number of each every year,which makes these skins by far the costliest articles we use."

  By this time we had reached the utmost point to which the carriagescould take us, about a furlong from the platform on which I had restedduring my descent. Seeing that the Regent and his companion haddismounted, I stopped and sprang down from my carriage, holding out myhand to assist Eveena's descent, an attention which I thought seemedto surprise her. Up to the platform the path was easy enough; afterthat it became steep even for me, and certainly a troublesome anddifficult ascent for a lady dressed as I have described, and hardlystronger than a child of the same height and size on earth. Still mycompanion did not seem to expect, and certainly did not inviteassistance. That she found no little difficulty in the walk wasevident from her turning back both sleeves and releasing her bird,which hovered closely round her. Very soon her embarrassments andstumbles threatened such actual danger as overcame my fear ofcommitting what, for aught I knew, might be an intrusion. Catching heras she fell, and raising her by the left hand, I held it fast in myown right, begging to be permitted to assist her for the rest of thejourney. Her manner and the tone of her voice made it evident thatsuch an attention, if unusual, was not offensive; but I observed thatthose who were following us looked at us with some little surprise,and spoke together in words which I could not catch, but the tone ofwhich was not exactly pleasant or complimentary. The Regent, a fewsteps in advance of us, turned back from time to time to ask me sometrivial question. At last we reached the summit, and here I releasedmy companion's hand and stepped forward a pace or two to point out tothe Regent the external structure of the Astronaut. I was near enough,of course, to be heard by Eveena, and endeavoured to address myexplanations as much to her as to the authority to whom I was requiredto render an account. But from the moment that we had actually joinedhim she withdrew from all part and all apparent interest in theconversation. When our companions moved forward to reach the entrance,which I had indicated, I again offered my hand, saying, "I am afraidyou will find some little difficulty in getting into the vessel by thewindow by which I got out."

  The Regent, however, had brought with him several light metal poles,which I had not observed while carried by his companion, but whichbeing put together formed a convenient ladder of adequate length. Hedesired me to ascend first and cut the riband by means of which thewindow had been sealed; the law being so strict that even he would notviolate the symbol of private ownership which protected my vessel.Having done this and opened the window, I sprang down, and he,followed by his companion, ascended the ladder, and resting himselfupon the broad inner ledge of the window--which afforded a convenientseat, since the crystal was but half the thickness of the wall--firsttook a long look all round the interior, and then leaped down,followed by his attendant. Eveena drew back, but was at last persuadedto mount the ladder with my assistance, and rest on the sill till Ifollowed her and lifted her down inside. The Regent had by this timereached the machinery, and was examining it very curiously, withgreater apparent appreciation of its purpose than I should haveexpected. When we joined them, I found little difficulty in explainingthe purpose and working of most parts of the apparatus. The nature andgeneration of the apergic power I took care not to explain. Theexistence of such a repulsive force was the point on which the Regentprofessed incredulity; as it was, of course, the critical fact onwhich my whole narrative turned--on which its truth or falsehooddepended. I resolved ere the close of the inspection to give him clearpractical evidence on this score. In the meantime, listening withoutanswer to his expressions of doubt, I followed him round the interior,explaining to him and to Eveena the use and structure of thethermometer, barycrite, and other instruments. My fair companionseemed to follow my explanation almost as easily as the officials. Ourfollowers, who had now entered the vessel, kept within hearing of myremarks; but, evidently aware that they were there on sufferance,asked no questions, and made their comments in a tone too low to allowme to understand their purport. The impression made on the Regent bythe instruments, so far as I could gather from his brief remarks andthe expression of his face, was one of contemptuous surprise ratherthan the interest excited by the motive machinery. Most of them wereevidently, in his opinion, clumsy contrivances for obtaining resultswhich the scientific knowledge and inventive genius of his countrymenhad long ago secured more completely and more easily. But he waspuzzled by the combination of such imperfect knowledge orsemi-barbaric ignorance with the possession of a secret of suchimmense importance as the repulsive current, not yet known nor, as Igathered, even conceived by the inhabitants of this planet. When hehad completed his inspection, he
requested permission to remove someof the objects I had left there; notably many of the dead plants, andseveral books of drawings, mathematical, mechanical, and ornamental,which I had left, and which had not been brought away by my host's sonwhen he visited the vessel. These I begged him to present to theCampta, adding to them a few smaller curiosities, after which I drewhim back towards the machinery. He summoned his attendant, and badehim take away to the carriages the articles I had given him, callingupon the intruders to assist.

  I was thus left with him and with Eveena alone in the building; andwith a partly serious, partly mischievous desire to prove to him thesubstantial reality of objects so closely related to my own disputedexistence, and to demonstrate the truth of my story, I loosened one ofthe conductors, connected it with the machinery, and, directing itagainst him, sent through it a very slight apergic current. I was notquite prepared for the result. His Highness was instantly knocked headover heels to a considerable distance. Turning to interrupt thecurrent before going to his assistance, I was startled to perceivethat an accident of graver moment, in my estimation at least, than thediscomfiture of this exalted official, had resulted from myexperiment. I had not noticed that a conductive wire was accidentallyin contact with the apergion, while its end hung down towards thefloor Of this I suppose Eveena had carelessly taken hold, and a partof the current passing through it had lessened the shock to the Regentat the expense of one which, though it could not possibly have injuredher, had from its suddenness so shaken her nerves as to throw her intoa momentary swoon. She was recovering almost at soon as I reached her;and by the time her fellow-sufferer had picked himself up in greatdisgust and astonishment, was partly aware what had happened. She was,however; much more anxious to excuse herself, in the manner of afrightened child, for meddling with the machinery than to hear myapologies for the accident. Noting her agitation, and seeing that shewas still trembling all over, I was more anxious to get her into theopen air, and out of reach of the apparatus she seemed to regard withconsiderable alarm, than to offer any due apology to the exaltedpersonage to whom I had afforded much stronger evidence, if not of myown substantiality, yet of the real existence of a repulsive energy,than I had seriously intended. With a few hurried words to him, Iraised Eveena to the window, and lifted her to the ground outside. Ifelt, however, that I could not leave the Regent to find his own wayout, the more so that I hardly saw how he could reach the window fromthe inside without my assistance. I excused myself, therefore, andseating her on a rock close to the ladder, promised to return at once.This, however, I found impossible. By the time the injured officer hadrecovered the physical shock to his nerves and the moral effect of thedisrespect to his person, his anxiety to verify what he had heardentirely occupied his mind; and he requested further experiments, notupon himself, which occupied some half-hour. He listened and spoke, Imust admit, with temper; but his air of displeasure was evidentenough, and I was aware that I had not entitled myself to his goodword, whether or not he would permit his resentment to colour hisaccount of facts. He was compelled, however, to request my help inreaching the window, which I gave with all possible deference.

  But, to my alarm, when we reached the foot of the ladder, Eveena wasnowhere to be seen. Calling her and receiving no reply, calling againand hearing what sounded like her voice, but in a faint tone andcoming I knew not whither, I ran round the platform to seek her. Icould see nothing of her; but at one point, just where the projectingedge of the platform overhung the precipice below, I recognised herbird fluttering its wings and screaming as if in pain or terror. TheRegent was calling me in a somewhat imperious tone, but of coursereceived neither answer nor attention. Reaching the spot, I lookedover the edge and with some trouble discovered what had happened. Notmerely below but underneath the overhanging edge was a shelf aboutfour feet long and some ten inches in breadth, covered with a flowerequally remarkable in form and colour, the former being that of ahollow cylindrical bell, about two inches in diameter; the latter abluish lilac, the nearest approach to azure I have seen in Mars--thewhole ground one sheet of flowers. On this, holding in ahalf-insensible state to the outward-sloping rock above her, Eveenaclung, her veil and head-dress fallen, her face expressing utterbewilderment as well as terror. I saw, though at the moment I hardlyunderstood, how she had reached this point. A very narrow path, somehundred feet in length, sloped down from the table-rock of the summitto the shelf on which she stood, with an outer hedge of shrubs and thesummits of small trees, which concealed, and in some sort guarded, theprecipice below, so that even a timid girl might pursue the pathwithout fear. But this path ended several feet from the commencementof the shelf. Across the gap had lain a fallen tree, with boughsaffording such a screen and railing on the outward side as might atonce conceal the gulf below, and afford assistance in crossing thechasm. But in crossing this tree Eveena's footsteps had displaced it,and it had so given way as not only to be unavailable, but a seriousobstacle to my passage. Had I had time to go round, I might have beenable to leap the chasm; I certainly could not return that way with aburden even so light as that of my precious charge. The only chancewas to lift her by main force directly to where I stood; and theoutward projection of the rock at this point rendered this peculiarlydifficult, as I had nothing to cling or hold by. The Regent had bythis time reached me, and discerned what had occurred.

  "Hold me fast," I said, "or sit upon me if you like, to hold me withyour weight whilst I lean over." The man stood astounded, not by thedanger of another but by the demand on himself; and evidently withoutthe slightest intention of complying.

  "You are mad!" he said. "Your chance is ten times greater to lose yourown life than to save hers."

  "Lose my life!" I cried. "Could I dare return alive without her? Throwyour whole weight on me, I say, as I lean over, and waste no moretime!"

  "What!" he rejoined. "You are twice as heavy as I, and if you arepulled over I shall probably go over too. Why am I to endanger myselfto save a girl from the consequences of her folly?"

  "If you do not," I swore, "I will fling you where the carcass of whichyou are so careful shall be crushed out of the very form of themanhood you disgrace."

  Even this threat failed to move him. Meantime the bird, fluttering onmy shoulder, suggested a last chance; and snatching the tablet roundits neck, I wrote two words thereon, and calling to it, "Home!" theintelligent creature flew off at fullest speed.

  "Now," I said, "if you do not help me I will kill you here and now. Ifyou pretend to help and fail me, that bird carries to Esmo my requestto hold you answerable for our lives."

  I invoked, in utter desperation, the awe with which, as his hints andmy experience implied, Esmo was regarded by his neighbours; andslender as seemed this support, it did not fail me. The Regent'scountenance fell, and I saw that I might depend at least on hispassive compliance. Clasping his arm with my left hand, I said, "Pullback with all your might. If I go over, you _shall_ go over too." Thenpulling him down with me, and stretching myself over the precipice sofar that but for this additional support I must have fallen, I reachedEveena, whose closed eyes and relaxing limbs indicated that anothermoment's delay might be fatal.

  "Give me your hand," I cried in despair, seeing how tightly she stillgrasped the tough fibrous shoots growing in the crevices of the rock,whereof she had taken hold. "Give me your hand, and let go!"

  To give me her hand was beyond the power of her will; to let gowithout giving me hold would have been fatal. Beaching over to theuttermost, I contrived to lay a firm grasp upon her wrist. But thiswould not do. I could hardly drag her up by one arm, especially if shewould not relax her grasp. I must release the Regent and depend uponhis obedience, or forfeit the chance of saving her, as in a few moremoments she would certainly swoon and fall.

  "Throw yourself upon me, and sit firm, if you value your life," Icried, and I relaxed my hold on his arm, stretching both hands tograsp Eveena. I felt the man's weight on my body, and with both armsextended to the uttermost hanging over the edge, I caugh
t firm bold ofthe girl's shoulders. Even now, with any girl of her age on earth, andfor aught I know with many Martial damsels, the case would have beenhopeless. My whole strength was required to raise her; I had none tospare to force her loose from her hold. Fortunately my rough and tightclasp seemed to rouse her. Her eyes half opened, and semi-consciousnessappeared to have returned.

  "Let go!" I cried in that sharp tone of imperious anger which--withsome tempers at least--is the natural expression of the outwardimpulse produced by supreme and agonizing terror. Obedience is thehereditary lesson taught to her sex by the effects of equality inMars. Eveena had been personally trained in a principle long discardedby Terrestrial women; and not half aware what she did, but yieldinginstinctively to the habit of compliance with imperative commandspoken in a masculine voice, she opened her hands just as I had lostall hope. With one desperate effort I swung her fairly on to theplatform, and, seeing her safe there, fell back myself scarcely moresensible than she was.

  The whole of this terrible scene, which it has taken so long torelate, did not occupy more than a minute in action. I know notwhether my readers can understand the full difficulty and danger ofthe situation. I know that no words of mine can convey the impressiongraven into my own memory, never to be effaced or weakened whileconsciousness remains. The strongest man on Earth could not have donewhat I did; could not, lying half over the precipice, have swung agirl of eighteen right out from underneath him, and to his own level.But Eveena was of slighter, smaller frame than a healthy French girlof twelve, while I retained the full strength of a man adapted to thework of a world where every weight is twice as heavy as on Mars. WhatI had practically to do was to lift not seven or eight stone ofEuropean girlhood, not even the six Eveena might possibly have weighedon Earth, but half that weight. And yet the position was such that allthe strength I had acquired through ten years of constant practice inthe field and in the chase, all the power of a frame in healthfulmaturity, and of muscles whose force seemed doubled by the tension ofthe nerves, hardly availed. When I recovered my own senses, and hadcontrived to restore Eveena's, my unwilling assistant had disappeared.

  It was an hour before Eveena seemed in a condition to be removed, andperhaps I was not very urgent to hurry her away. I had done no morethan any man, the lowest and meanest on Earth, must have done underthe circumstances. I can scarcely enter into the feelings of thefellow-man who, in my position, could have recognised a choice butbetween saving and perishing with the helpless creature entrusted tohis charge. But hereditary disbelief in any power above the physicalforces of Nature, in any law higher than that of man's own making, hasrendered human nature in Mars something utterly different from,perhaps, hardly intelligible to, the human nature of a planet fortymillion miles nearer the Sun. Though brought up in an affectionatehome, Eveena shared the ideas of the world in which she was born; andso far accepted its standards of opinion and action as natural if notright, that the risk I had run, the effort I had made to save her,seemed to her scarcely less extraordinary than it had appeared to theZampta. She rated its devotion and generosity as highly as heappreciated its extravagance and folly; and if he counted me a madman,she was disposed to elevate me into a hero or a demi-god. The tonesand looks of a maiden in such a temper, however perfect her maidenlyreserve, would, I fancy, be very agreeable to men older than I was,either in constitution or even in experience. I doubt whether any manunder fifty would have been more anxious than myself to cut short ourperiod of repose, broken as it was, when I refused to listen to hertearful penitence and self-reproach, by occasional words and looks ofgratitude and admiration. I did, however, remember that it wasexpedient to refasten the window, and re-attach the seals, beforedeparting. At the end of the hour's rest I allowed my charge andmyself, I had recovered more or less completely the nervous forcewhich had been for a while utterly exhausted, less by the effort thanby the terror that preceded it. I was neither surprised, nor perhapsas much grieved as I should have been, to find that Eveena couldhardly walk; and felt to the full the value of those novel conditionswhich enabled me to carry her the more easily in my arms, though muchoppressed even by so slight an effort in that thin air, to the placewhere we had left our carriage--no inconsiderable distance by the pathwe had to pursue. Before starting on our return I had, in despite ofher most earnest entreaties, managed to recover her head-dress andveil, at a risk which, under other circumstances, I might not havecared to encounter. But had she been seen without it on our return,the comments of the whole neighbourhood would have been such as mighthave disturbed even her father's cool indifference. We reached herhome in safety, and with little notice, having, of course, drawn thecanopy around us as completely as possible. I was pleased to find thatonly her younger sister, to whose care I at once committed her, wasthere at present, the elders not having yet returned. I took care todetach from the bird's neck the tablet which had served its purpose sowell. The creature had found his way home within half-an-hour after Idismissed him, and had frightened Zevle [Stella] not a little; thoughthe message, which a fatal result would have made sufficientlyintelligible to Esmo, utterly escaped her comprehension.