file-glob always returns an empty list

[pyjamaslug]

any idea what is happening with the return values? From google's chat example they show this as a return list:

(3 ("~/Images/image1.jpg" "~/Images/image2.jpg" "~/Images/photo.jpg"))

Here, 3 is the number of matched files, and ("~/Images/image1.jpg" "~/Images/image2.jpg" "~/Images/photo.jpg") is the list of matched file paths.

but that is not what I am getting; the files are in the head (accessible using car) and the tail is empty.