"Only you can't remember what it looks like quite?" put in Uncle Felix. Stumper hesitated a moment. "Too wonderful to remember properly," he said more quietly; something like that. "But the odd thing is," he went on in a lower tone, "I've seen it. I _know_ I've seen it. Saw it this mornin'--very early--when the pigeon woke me up--at dawn." "Pigeon!" exclaimed Tim and Judy simultaneously. "Dawn!" "Carrier-pigeon--flew in at my open window--woke me," continued the soldier in his gruff old voice. "I've used 'em--carrier-pigeons, you know. Sent messages--years ago. I understand the birds a bit. Extraordinary thing, I thought. Got up and looked at it." He blocked again. "Ah!" said some one, by way of encouragement. "And it looked back at me." By the way he said it, it was clear he hardly expected to be believed. "Of course," said Uncle Felix. "Naturally," added Tim. "And what d'you think?" Stumper went on, a note of yearning and even passion in his voice. "What d'you think?" he whispered: "I felt it had a message for me--brought _me_ a message--something to tell me--" "Round its neck or foot?" asked Tim. Stumper drew the boy closer and looked down into his face. "Eyes," he mumbled, "in its small bright eyes. There was a flash, I saw it plainly--something strange and marvellous, something I've been looking for all my life." No one said a single word, but the old soldier felt the understanding sympathy rising like steam from all of them. "Then, suddenly, it was gone--out into the open sky--bang into the sunrise. And I saw the dawn all over everything. I dressed--rushed out--and--" "Had it laid an egg?" Tim asked, remembering another kind of hunting somewhere, long ago. "How could it?" Judy corrected him quickly. "There was--no time--" then stopped abruptly. She turned towards Come-Back Stumper; she gave him a hurried and affectionate hug. "And then," she asked, "what happened next?" Stumper returned the hug, including Tim in it too. "I found _this_--fluttering in my hand," he said, and held up a small grey feather for them to admire. "It's the only clue I've got. The pigeon left it." While they admired the feather and exhibited their own, Tim crying, "We've got five now, nearly a whole wing!" Stumper was heard to murmur above their heads, "And since I--came out to look--I've felt--quite different." "Your secret's in the wind and open sky!" cried Judy, dancing round him with excitement. Her voice came flying from the air. "You're awfully warm--you're hot--you're burning!" shouted Tim, clapping his hands. His voice seemed to rise out of the earth. "We've all seen it, all had a glimpse," roared Uncle Felix with a sound of falling water, rolling up nearer as he spoke. "It's too wonderful to see for long, too wonderful to remember quite. But we shall find it in the end. We're all looking!" He began a sort of dancing step. "And when we find it--" he went on.