"Speak up!" Chadwick snapped.
"I know all about it," Toffee said. The words came in a rush. "I was his human subject. He experimented on me in his laboratory. You'd never guess that I'm really twenty years old, would you?"
The two looked at her suspiciously.
"She's lying," Agatha said. "She couldn't be twenty."
"Oh, yes," Toffee insisted, warming up to the lie. "Mr. Culpepper lured me into his laboratory with a stick of candy when I was only eight years old. I haven't aged a day since."
"Might be right at that," Chadwick mused. "After all, you'll have to admit that her language is rather advanced for just a child ... in an appalling sort of way."
"Can you prove what you say?" Agatha asked.
Toffee hesitated. "Well," she said presently, "in a way, I can. There's another thing about Fixage that you don't know."
"Yes?" Chadwick and Agatha chorused. "What's that?"