to show us. One of these was a starling whose wicker cage he placed on the sill where the sunlight fell.
He had got it, he said, from one of the crew of a trading vessel off the coast of Java. The sailor had brought it all the way from Devon for company, and, he added—"the brute had put out both its eyes so that it would learn to talk more readily, so now, you see, the poor little fellow is quite blind."
"Blind—blind—blind!" echoed the starling briskly, "blind—blind—blind!"
He took it from its cage on his finger. It hopped up his arm till it reached his cheek, where it began to peck at his whiskers, crying all the while in its shrill, lonely tones,—"Blind, blind, blind!"
We three were entranced; and an idea that was swiftly forming in my mind struggled for expression.
If this wonderful old man had, as he said, sailed the seas from Land's End to Ceylon, was it not possible that he had seen, even fought with, real pirates? Might he not have followed hot on the trail of hidden treasure? My cheeks burned as I tried to put the question.
"Did you—" I began, "did you—"
"Well?" he encouraged. "Did I what, John?"
[30]
