Dinner was ended. Daisy Holroyd lighted her father's pipe for him, and
insisted on my smoking as much as I pleased. Then she sat down, and
folded her hands like a good little girl, waiting for her father to
make the revelation which I felt in my bones must be something out of
the ordinary.
The professor smoked for a while, gazing meditatively at his daughter;
then, fixing his gray eyes on me, he said:
"Have you ever heard of the kree--that Australian bird, half parrot,
half hawk, that destroys so many sheep in New South Wales?"