asking everywhere. I went
over the whole length and breadth of South America. But there wasn't a
living thing could tell me where he was."

There was a sad silence in the room after she had finished; the Doctor
was frowning in a peculiar sort of way and Polynesia scratched her head.

"Did you ask the black parrots?" asked Polynesia. "They usually know
everything."

"Certainly I did," said Miranda. "And I was so upset at not being
able to find out anything, that I forgot all about observing the
weather-signs before I started my flight here. I didn't even bother to
break my journey at the Azores, but cut right across, making for the
Straits of Gibraltar--as though it were June or July. And of course I
ran into a perfectly frightful storm in mid-Atlantic. I really thought
I'd never come through it. Luckily I found a piece of a wrecked vessel
floating in the sea after the storm had partly died down; and I roosted
on it and took some sleep. If I hadn't been able to take that rest I
wouldn't be here to tell the tale."

"Poor Miranda! What a time you must have had!" said the Doctor. "But
tell me, were you able to find out whereabouts Long Arrow was last
seen?"

"Yes. A young albatross told me he had seen him on Spidermonkey Island?"

"Spidermonkey Island? That's somewhere off the coast of Brazil, isn't
it?"

"Yes, that's it. Of course I flew there right away and asked every bird
on the island--and it is a big island, a hundred miles long. It seems
that Long Arrow was visiting some peculiar Indians that live there; and
that when last seen he was going up into the mountains looking for rare
medicine-plants. I got that from a tame hawk, a pet, which the Chief of
the Indians keeps for hunting partridges with. I nearly got caught and
put in a cage for my pains too. That's the worst of having beautiful
feathers: it's as much as your life is worth to go near most
humans--They say, 'oh how pretty!' and shoot an arrow or a bullet into
you. You and Long Arrow were the only two men that I would ever trust
myself near--out of all the people in the world."

"But was he never known to have returned from the mountains?"

"No. That was the last that was seen or heard of him. I questioned the
sea-birds around the shores to find out if he had left the island in a
canoe. But they could tell me nothing."

"Do you think that some accident has happened to him?" asked the Doctor
in a fearful voice.

"I'm afraid it must have," said Mira