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A bird-man might have flown over the neighborhood a dozen times without guessing that they were there. We were hidden in the pines, and only an occasional far-off Br-r-rum-m! from the cannons in the south broke the stillness. Some one had brought up a cask of native claret from Chanak, and the field-marshal's staff were helping to put it into the bank in front of the arbor.
A hidden battery roared and pop! a little puff of cotton floated in the sky under the approaching flier. Another and another all the nervous little batteries in the hills round about were coming to our rescue. The bird-man, safely above them, drew on without flinching.
The other man was an American, Roy Sinclair, a tall, lithe, wiry chap with a seamed and furrowed face and a loose-jointed but very deft manner which marked him a born bird-man. Norton's third aviator, Humphreys, who was not to fly that day, much to his relief, was reading a paper in the back of the shed.
"Nay, rather ask her what her errand is about," said Estein. "And tell her," added Helgi as the bird-man turned away, "that here sits the king's foster-brother, a most proper person at all times to hear a maiden's tale, and now most persuasively charged with ale." The man went down the hall again, and Earl Sigvald exclaimed testily,
See, mon ami," he said radiantly to Roland, "all now O. K. We go on." "No," said Roland decidedly. "No? What you mean no?" A shade of alarm fell on M. Feriaud's weather-beaten features. The eminent bird-man did not wish to part from Roland. Toward Roland he felt like a brother, for Roland had notions about payment for little aeroplane rides which bordered upon the princely.
Invention, crowned with the bays of achievement, holds in his hand a bird-man about to leave the earth; Imagination, accompanied by the eagle making ready to soar, dreams with closed eyes. Pirate Deck-Hand Niches, North Facade of Palaces
Flying machines appear from the Fair Ground north of the city, and circle round and round as they go up, trying to reach the slowly descending plummet. At last, while the throng cheers, one bird-man has attained it. He brings back his message that the gift is an image, covered loosely with a wrapping that seems to be of spun gold.
The negotiations with the bird-man had lasted a little longer than one would have expected. But then, of course, M. Feriaud was a foreigner, and Roland's French was not fluent. He took Muriel's hand. "Good-by," he said. He shook hands with the rest of the party, even with Albert Potter.
"I will quote you a parable," I said, and although I attempted to smile, that the speech might be taken lightly, I had that rigid feeling about the lips and brow which made me conscious that my face was drawn and tell-tale. "Icarus was the original bird-man, and he came to grief. His wings were fastened on with wax, but they worked fairly well until he soared too close to the sun.
It often becomes necessary for the bird-man to examine the internal organs of the bird he is stuffing before he can certainly decide its sex. But there is no difficulty whatever in telling the male from the female of the English sparrow. The male is far the more ornate bird.
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