"Oh, I say!" I rather gasped. Dash me if it didn't give me a turn, rather!
The professor shrugged his shoulders.
"What other interpretation is admissible, gentlemen?" he questioned somewhat peevishly, taking up the coat. "Here we have the royal insignia of the cruel emperor, Keë, and we note that these garments were given some one in his court by the alleged sorcerer, Fuh-keen. Perhaps it was revenge—perhaps some court plot in which Fuh-keen, for reasons of his own, was an active participant; it is of no importance, that part of it. So much for the first line: but now we come—"
He paused to polish his spectacles.
"Tell me," he said more cheerfully, "do our free translations of the ideographs so far agree in essentials—eh?"
"Like as two peas!" Billings declared with manifest enthusiasm.
The professor looked gratified and bowed.
"Of course, the rendition is entirely a free one," he remarked. "You must not expect too much."
"Devilish handsome and clever of him!" I whispered to Billings, as the professor proceeded to adjust his spectacles. "Dash it, I wish he'd let me pay him, though."
"Forget it!" hissed Billings. "Didn't he just say it was free? He's no cheap skate, I tell you."