"And still brought no news?"
"None."
"By Heaven! Your coolness would make a saint swear! What are you looking at so fixedly in the sky? Do you fancy you can find the information we require there?"
"Perhaps so," the Major-domo replied seriously. Then extending his hand in a north-east direction, he said—
"Look there."
"Well?" the Colonel said looking in the direction indicated.
"Do you see nothing?"
"On my honour, no."
"Not even those flocks of herons and flamingos flying in large circles, and uttering shrill cries which you can hear from here?"
"Certainly I see birds; but what have they in common——?"