"He was tall and rather thin. His hair was white and he was clean-shaven. His eyes and his teeth were very good. Even in spite of his age and all the reading and studying, he never had to wear glasses. Oh, yes—there's something else. He had an expression he often used, about as near swearing as he ever went. 'By jing!' it was. Whenever he was excited about anything or wanted to emphasize something he had said, he would always exclaim 'by jing!' I remember that he forgot himself in a lecture one day and said that. The dean spoke to him about it."
"'By jing!'" remarked Frank thoughtfully. "It isn't an expression one hears every day."
"It was the only expression I can remember that was quite characteristic of Todham."
Miss Todd had little of further value to tell them, and when the Hardy boys were by themselves later on they discussed the peculiarities of the missing professor.
"He forgets to tie his shoelaces and he says 'by jing!'" observed Joe. "It should be easy enough to pick him out with a description like that. It's strange he hasn't turned up long ago."
"Unless he met somebody who knew he was missing and who had heard of those little habits, he wouldn't be noticed. And it's just about a thousand chances to one that we would ever run across him."
"Well, we can at least make a note of it and tell Dad when he comes back. Chances are, he will never hear about those things, and Miss Todd may forget to tell him. It might help him a lot."
"I guess this is one mystery where we won't have much chance to help," said Frank ruefully. "Still, we'll do what we can."
But the Hardy boys were destined to take an even more active part in the mystery of Todham Todd than Fenton Hardy himself.