Synopsis

Two men stood outside a bird-fancier's shop in the East End of London. The shop was not far from the docks, and had a great traffic with sailors. Tiny emerald and gamboge love-birds squawked in their cages, there was a glass box of lizards with eyes like live rubies set in the shop window, while a hideous little ape—chained to a hook—clattered in an impish frenzy. Outside the shop door hung a cage containing a huge parrot, and it was this at which the two men were looking. Hampson, a little wrinkled man in very shabby clothes, but of a brave and confident aspect, pointed to the parrot. "I wonder if it talks?" he said. Immediately upon his words the grey bird, its watchful eye gleaming with mischievous fire, began a stream of disconnected words and sentences, very voluble, very rapid, and very clear. Hampson shuddered. "Do you know, Joseph," he said, "I am always afraid when I hear that sound—that noise of a bird talking human words. To me, there is no more dreadful sound in the world." Hampson's companion, a taller and much more considerable man, looked at the little fellow with surprise. "Afraid?" he said. "Why should you be afraid? The sound is grotesque, and nothing m...