t Priest and devout sceptic."

The Father laughed and pushed away his cup.

"Very well, then. No coffee."

"One cigarette, and then to business."

The grey blue smoke curled up.

"What are we going to do?" said the Father.

He was sitting bolt upright as if ready for action. Indeed there was no
suggestion of repose in the attitudes of either of the men.

"Hide ourselves, and watch Napoleon. By the way--that reminds me."

He got up, went to a corner of the room, picked up a piece of green
baize and threw it over the cage.

"I'll pull that off when we are hidden."

"And tell me first if you have had any manifestation of this supposed
presence during the last few days?"

"Merely an increasingly intense sensation of something here, perpetually
watching me, perpetually attending to all my doings."

"Do you feel that it follows you about?"

"Not always. It was in this room when you arrived. It is here now--I
feel. But, in going down to dinner, we seemed to get away from it. The
conclusion is that it remained here. Don't let us talk about it just
now."

They spoke of other things till their cigarettes were finished. Then, as
they threw away the smouldering ends, Guildea said,

"Now, Murchison, for the sake of this experiment, I suggest that we
should conceal ourselves behind the curtains on either side of the cage,
so that the bird's attention may not be drawn towards us and so
distracted from that which we want to know more about. I will pull away
the green baize when we are hidden. Keep perfectly still, watch the
bird's proceedings, and tell me afterwards how you feel about them, how
you explain them. Tread softly."

The Father obeyed, and they stole towards the curtains that fell before
the two windows. The Father concealed himself behind those on the left
of the cage, the Professor behind those on the right. The latter, as
soon as they were hidden, stretched out his arm, drew the baize down
from the cage, and let it fall on the floor.

The parrot, which had evidently fallen asleep in the warm darkness,
moved on its perch as the light shone upon it, ruffled the feathers
round its throat, and lifted first one foot and then the other. It
turned its head round on its supple, and apparently elastic, neck, and,
diving its beak into the down upon its back, made some searching
investigations with, as it seemed, a satisfactory result, for it soon
lifted its head again, glanced around its cage, and began to addr