Billings nodded emphatically.
"Surest thing you know," he declared firmly, and whispered to me triumphantly. "Didn't I tell him it was idiotic?"
The professor's lips moved rapidly and his visage twisted into a horrible frown.
"Why, why—a—what!" With mouth open, and gripping the pajamas tightly, he glared at us each in turn.
"Oh, impossible!" he rasped harshly, seizing the lens and bending again. "Incredible—poof—absurd—tut, tut, what nonsense!"
The glass swept the lines rapidly. Suddenly, with a cry, the professor dropped the lens, a violent start almost lifting him from the floor.
"Papauhegopoulos!" he cried explosively, and whirled on us again.
Dash me, if I didn't fall back a step, his eyes rolled so wildly. But Billings stood his ground, by Jove!
"I didn't quite catch—" he began hesitatingly, angling his bristly red head forward and smiling pleasantly.
The professor seemed abashed of a sudden.