"Perhaps you had better tell me what this is all about, Mr...?"
"Rumplestein. However, believe me, Professor Clarke, it is much better if you do not know."
I shook my head, displaying what my colleagues occasionally call a streak of stubbornness. "You have upset me considerably. I feel I am due some explanation."
"No! No! No!" He shook his little head vigorously each time.
"Then I cannot recollect what this man said to me."
He groaned in dismay and stepped off the chair to the floor. "Very well," he said, finally. "You force me to reveal this." I waited patiently. His head snapped erect. His body stiffened. "I am engaged in a highly secret mission, the purpose of which is to prevent the collapse of this city."
I frowned. "You're not serious, of course."
"I have never been more serious in my life!"
"Quem Jupiter vult perdere, dementat prius."
"What?"