We paused on the threshold. A human windmill of whirling legs and arms––Polydore legs and arms––flashed before our eyes.
“Stop!” I thundered.
The flying wheel of arms and legs slacked, ran a few times, then slowly stopped, and the Polydore quintette assumed normal positions.
“Halloa, stepdaddy!”
A landslide composed of Emerald, Pythagoras, and Demetrius started toward me. I side-stepped and let Rob receive the charge.
“Line them up now, for attention,” I directed Ptolemy. “I have something to say to you all.”
Ptolemy knocked the three terrors up against the wall, and I picked up Diogenes, who had a bump as big as an egg on his head.
“I told you,” said Ptolemy to Pythagoras, “that if you brought Di down here they’d get on our trail. He wanted to see Di,” he explained, “so he sneaked over there and got him.”
“We were wise before today,” I informed him. “I saw you all day before yesterday.”