"Paleontologically the periods are characterized by absence of the large marine saurians, Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs—"
"eh?" gasped Barton.
"Why, of course!" called Edgarton, a bit impatiently, from the window.
Laboriously Barton went back and reread the phrase to himself. "Oh—oh, yes," he conceded lamely.
"Paleontologically,"
he began all over again. "Oh, dear, no!" he interrupted himself. "I was farther along than that!—Absence of marine saurians? Oh, yes!
"Absence of marine saurians,"
he resumed glibly,
"Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs—so abundant in the—in the Cretaceous—of Ammonites and Belemnites,"
he persisted—heroically. Hesitatingly, stumblingly, without a glimmer of understanding, his bewildered mind worried on and on, its entire mental energy concentrated on the single purpose of trying to pronounce the awful words.