the hill, at a space
of bare and ragged common, Horner got off. By rough paths, frequented
by goats, he made his way up the rocky slope, through bare ravines and
over broken ridges, and came at last to a steep rock in a solitude,
whence only far-off roofs could be seen, and masts, and bridges, and
the sharp gleam of the sea in the distance.

This place satisfied him. On the highest point of the rock he
carefully unfastened the bonds of his prisoner, loosed him, and jumped
back with respect and discretion. The great bird sat up very straight,
half raised and lowered his wings as if to regain his poise, looked
Horner dauntlessly in the eye, then stared slowly about him and above,
as if to make sure that there were really no bars for him to beat his
wings against. For perhaps a full minute he sat there. Then, having
betrayed no unkingly haste, he spread his wings to their full splendid
width and launched himself from the brink. For a few seconds he
flapped heavily, as if his wings had grown unused to their function.
Then he got his rhythm, and swung into a wide, mounting spiral, which
Horner watched with sympathetic joy. At last, when he was but a
wheeling speck in the pale blue dome, he suddenly turned and sailed
off straight towards the northeast, with a speed which carried him out
of sight in a moment.

Horner drew a long breath, half wistful, half glad.

"Them golden eyes of yourn kin see a thunderin' long ways off,
pardner," he muttered, "but I reckon even you can't make out the top
of 'Old Baldy' at this distance. It's the eyes o' your heart ye must
have seen it with, to make for it so straight!"

THE LORD OF THE GLASS HOUSE

THE LORD OF THE GLASS HOUSE

CHAPTER I

In the sheltered Caribbean cove the water was warm as milk, green and
clear as liquid beryl, and shot through with shimmering sun. Under
that stimulating yet mitigated radiance the bottom of the cove was
astir with strange life, grotesque in form, but brilliant as jewels or
flowers. Long, shining weeds, red, yellow, amber, purple, and olive,
waved sinuously among the weed-like sea-anemones which outshone them
in colored sheen. Fantastic pink-and-orange crabs sidled awkwardly but
nimbly this way and that. Tiny sea-horses, yet more fantastic, slipped
shyly from one weed-covert to another, aware of a possible peril in
every gay but menacing bloom. And just above this eccentric life of
the shoal sea-floor small fishes of curious form sho