"But—the explosive—"
"Explosive, my eye!" And, again glaring: "Do you mean to tell me you can't understand why that stuff he had in the package didn't go off, you abbreviated atom?"
Henry's goatee waggled uncertainly. He adjusted the steel-rimmed spectacles which were his only garment.
"Well ... really, Joseph...."
"I'll admit right out I don't get it," broke in Major Coggleston. "You mean there wasn't any danger of that stuff going off?"
"Of course not." Professor Paulsen was distinctly snappish.
"But why—"
The scientist turned back to Henry. "Don't you remember what I said to you this morning about those devil's glasses of yours transposing letters instead of just reversing them? And that you told me it would take a special lens to straighten them out?"
"You mean—"