Question

Claribel thrived and grew fat. On the whole, we had little trouble concealing our unauthorized guest when VIP’s from Earth came visiting. A space station has more hiding places than you can count; the only problem was that Claribel got rather noisy when she was upset, and we sometimes had to think fast to explain the curious peeps and whistles that came from ventilating shafts and storage bulkheads. There were a couple of narrow escapes — but then who would dream of looking for a canary in a space station?




“Where’s Sven?” I asked, not very much caring.

“He’s looking for Claribel,” someone answered. “Says he can’t find her anywhere. She usually wakes him up.”

Before I could retort that she usually woke me up, too, Sven came in through the doorway, and we could see at once that something was wrong. He slowly opened his hand, and there lay a tiny bundle of yellow feathers, with two clenched claws sticking pathetically up into the air.

“What happened?” we asked, all equally distressed.

“I don’t know,” said Sven mournfully. “I just found her like this.”

“Let’s have a look at her,” said Jock Duncan, our cook-doctor-dietitian. We all waited in hushed silence while he held Claribel against his ear in an attempt to detect any heartbeat.

Presently he shook his head. “I can’t hear anything, but that doesn’t prove she’s dead. I’ve never listened to a canary’s heart,” he added rather apologetically.

“Give her a shot of oxygen,” suggested somebody, pointing to the green-banded emergency cylinder in its recess beside the door. Everyone agreed that this was an excellent idea, and Claribel was tucked snugly into a face mask that was large enough to serve as a complete oxygen tent for her.

To our delighted surprise, she revived at once. Beaming broadly, Sven removed the mask, and she hopped onto his fingers. She gave her series of “Come to the cookhouse, boys” trills — then promptly keeled over again.

“I don’t get it,” lamented Sven. “What’s wrong with her? She’s never done this before.”

For the last few minutes, something had been tugging at my memory. My mind seemed to be very sluggish that morning, as if I was still unable to cast off the burden of sleep. I felt that I could do with some of that oxygen — but before I could reach the mask, understanding exploded in my brain. I whirled on the duty engineer and said urgently:

“Jim! There’s something wrong with the air! That’s why Claribel’s passed out. I’ve just remembered that miners used to carry canaries down to warn them of gas.”

“Nonsense!” said Jim. “The alarms would have gone off. We’ve got duplicate circuits, operating independently.”

“Er — the second alarm circuit isn’t connected up yet,” his assistant reminded him. That shook Jim; he left without a word, while we stood arguing and passing the oxygen bottle around like a pipe of peace.

He came back ten minutes later with a sheepish expression. It was one of those accidents that couldn’t possibly happen; we’d had one of our rare eclipses by Earth’s shadow that night; part of the air purifier had frozen up, and the single alarm in the circuit had failed to go off. Half a million dollars’ worth of chemical and electronic engineering had let us down completely. Without Claribel, we should soon have been slightly dead.

So now, if you visit any space station, don’t be surprised if you hear an inexplicable snatch of birdsong. There’s no need to be alarmed: on the contrary, in fact. It will mean that you’re being doubly safeguarded, at practically no extra expense.

"Feathered Friend" by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, from The Other Side of the Sky. Copyright ©1957. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Notes
AllDefinitionsFootnotes
Excel (verb) : to do or perform better than others
Girder (noun) : a large iron or steel beam used for building bridges and large buildings
having or appearing to have length, width, and height
Precisely (adverb) : exactly
a person who specializes in the study of mind and behavior
extremely small
Depart (verb) : to leave; go away
Unauthorized (adjective) : not having permission
a passage used to move fresh air
a wall that divides the inside of a ship or aircraft
a building or room in which members of a crew take their meals
Pathetically (adverb) : in a way that causes feelings of sadness and sympathy, especially because a person or animal is suffering
a strong expression of grief or sorrow
Circuit (noun) : a closed path followed by an electric current
Eclipse (noun) : an event when the sun looks like it is completely or partially covered
unable to be explained
Question 3
Write: What does the word "concealing" mean as it is used in paragraph 8?

Answer 1

"Concealing" means hiding or keeping something out of sight. In the sentence it refers to hiding their unauthorized guest (the canary) from visiting VIPs.