For perhaps half an hour Jorj sat very still, thinking. Then he turned to the phone and, after some delay, got his party.
"What is it now, Jorj?" Caddy asked impatiently. "Please don't bother me with any of your moods, because I'm tired and my nerves are on edge."
He took a breath. When steps may have to be taken, he thought, one must hold an agent in readiness. "Caddums," he intoned hypnotically, vibrantly. "Caddums...."
The voice at the other end had instantly changed, become submissive, sleepy, suppliant.
"Yes, Master?"
Morton Opperly looked up from the sheet of neatly penned equations at Willard Farquar, who had somehow acquired a measure of poise. He neither lumbered restlessly nor grimaced. He removed his coat with a certain dignity and stood solidly before his mentor. He smiled. Granting that he was a bear, one might guess he had just been fed.
"You see?" he said. "They didn't hurt me."
"They didn't hurt you?" Opperly asked softly.
Willard slowly shook his head. His smile broadened.