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.