How his remarks were received he did not see, for he strode downhill without once looking back. But the scientist's offer to pay him for getting Professor Helmuth to dine with them was both disgusting and illuminating.
It filled him with distaste for everything German—or Saxon—with particular emphasis upon Krausz' ribbon of muscle; and it also made him wonder why the she-professor was refusing to honour the general mess with her company. Did she carry primness to such a limit?
"I'll fix her," he said, and upon reaching his tent sent a boy for Potbelly. When that individual appeared, Hammer gave him his name, stated that he was an American, and said to tell Professor Helmuth that he intended to call on her in ten minutes.
Potbelly's grin vanished and he looked ugly instantly, whereat Hammer took him by the shoulder and assisted him from the tent with a kick.
He watched Potbelly disappear inside the other large tent, then sat down and smoked his pipe.
When the ten minutes were up he promptly knocked the ashes out of his pipe, began to whistle and started for the other tent.
Potbelly looked out, vanished again, and the next minute the tent-flap was pushed aside and Hammer obtained his first view of Professor Sara L. Helmuth—and he was undoubtedly the most astonished man in the whole of British East Africa at that instant.
CHAPTER VI
THE LADY PROFESSOR
The American's dreams of spectacles and blue pagaris was swept away, for standing facing him with expectant eyes was—a girl or a woman, Hammer could not tell which.