A SURPRISED CLERK 3 



" I beg your pardon. I am neither old nor daft. You 

 keep a public house, to which all respectable folk should 

 be welcome. I am an eminently respectable man. You 

 have no moral or legal right to treat a gentleman rudely." 



" "Well, old fellow, leave your sticks in the wood-shed, 

 and I will give you a room in the attic — the rest of the 

 rooms are to be occupied to-night. The judge, jury, and 

 witnesses are to be here. That is the best I can do." 



" But I must take the nest to my room. I wish to 

 paint it before anything happens to disarrange it — to paint 

 it just as the eagle left it on the cliff. I came near fall- 

 ing over the cliff to secure it. I tied a rope to a tree 

 on the cliff, and let myself down by it over the edge of 

 the cliff, when — it makes me dizzy to think of it! — the 

 tree bent over. It has been dry weather, and the soil is 

 shallow on the surface of the rock. I periled my life 

 to secure that nest. I would not sell it for pounds, for 

 doubloons, for napoleons, for anything." 



The clerk stared. 



" You must be loony ! " 



" Sir? " 



" You must be daft — a little off — not quite all there. 

 I wouldn't give a penny for the nest for kindling wood 

 on a cold day in winter. What can that rotting rub- 

 bish be to you?" 



" My life — my life is in it. Oh, you don't know! 

 You can't see! What power taught the inhabitant of the 



